Homicide Department
by Flame Falcon
Summary: Homicide detectives Ike, Link, and Marth are in over their heads. What starts out as a murder of musician Lyn soon spans out into several more victims. Soon they realize there is more going on then just murders and are dragged into the underworld of the city: where the drugs are king and those in power have many ways to keep it. Often, the price is your life.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, here we go with another experiment story. I don't exactly know how I came up with this idea, but I hope it pays off and you readers enjoy it. It will also be my first mature story, and as you will see, it probably deserves that. So with out further due, I give you Homicide Department. As always, please remember to review.**

* * *

_The door opened up before her, and Lyn stumbled out of it. She was drunk, happy and content. Really the whole point of her career. She smiled to herself as she left the club. It was her first real gig, a crowd of about a hundred. She even got asked by a Harkinian record producer for a demo! She was so happy. Finally everything was going her way. She had an apartment that she could pay with her steady and healthy income, and she could have the potential to move up. With a record producer like that, she would be known through out not only the city, but the rest of the world if she had the luck and continually practised her skills. _

_She walked down the alley back home, her feet screaming in pain all the while. It was the last time, she wore in her head, that she would wear seven inch heels . Femininity be damned, she wanted to be able to walk for the three hours of performance with out sitting down every half hour during the show. She would have to buy some more revealing clothes to make up for those heels, but that was the price of fame._

_As she walked through the alley she heard some footsteps that were not her own. She knew they were behind her, and she picked up her pace. It was past midnight, and she didn't want to be taken advantage of this late. The only problem was tat she was walking more sporadic thanks to the pathetic heels._

_She did not know, did not want to know, who was behind her. Whose own pace was increasing by the minute, and her own was steadily decreasing. She kept moving forward, feeling her heart pound in her chest every second ._

_She stumbled over and she heard the the footsteps behind her screech to a halt. She rolled over and saw the man, looking down at her. Though she couldn't see his face, she knew there was one there. She looked down his arm and saw that in his hands there was a loaded.45 caliber handgun. He raised it slowly, making a big deal of the whole situation until it was right in front of her face._

_She didn't scream, and she didn't run. As the assassin pulled the trigger, she laughed. Funny thing, things were just starting to go well..._

* * *

Ike got to the scene as fast as he could, and he was pretty certain he broke one or two traffic laws doing so. But he didn't worry too much about the situation, he was in homicide. This was going to be one of his first cases as a detective and he needed to be there as soon as he could. He needed to get there before any of the evidence was compromised. Undoubtedly there was some that would be, murders were not often reported the second they were committed.

As he pulled up in the south central part of town, he saw his two compatriots awaiting him. Detectives Marth and Link, good friends and fellow classmates at the academy. They have been together through the thick and thin of it, what ever this city could throw at them. Now they worked together in homicide, and realizing that no matter how bad they have it, there are always the cases they see prove others had it worse.

Link looked down at his watch and gestured for Ike to follow them. "Four in the morning. Why can't we ever have a nine to five killer?"

Marth laughed without humor as they ducked through the hounds of the media and under the police tape. "Where is the challenge in that?" Once they were beyond the tape, Marth filled Ike in. "Our vic. is Lyndis Forecastle, better known by her stage name as Lyn. She was a rising underground star in the pop world." Ike nodded as they reached the body of the deceased.

Lyn was sprawled out on the ground, her body in the candid position she must have fell down. Her head was surprisingly intact with the bullet hole in the center of the forehead. In many execution murders Ike saw, the head exploded when shot point blank due to the structure being compromised. It also made it hard to hold down one's stomach contents to see a puddle of skin, bones, blood and organ. Ike looked around the scene as he applied his dark blue rubber gloves, "Does she have her purse or wallet still on hand?"

The purse was passed to him, dangling by the end of Samus' pen. The Medical Examiner coughed and was growing impatient with Ike not taking it so she could use her pen. Ike took the purse and tried not to let his eyes wander on the M.E's choice of attire. _Who wears a skin tight jumpsuit?_ He asked in his mind as he looked through the purse.

Samus spoke while the detectives looked around the body. "Body was discovered by some returning college fraternity students. They thought she was unconscious and looked to see if they could help her. That is when they noticed the bullet hole." She murmured to herself as she wrote some things down. "She died of a single gunshot wound to the head. Death was almost instantaneous."

Ike looked through the purse. ID and credit cards were still there, as was a health sum of three hundred and twelve dollars in medium bills. Clearly this wasn't a robbery gone wrong. What did catch his eye was a business card. He pulled it out and read it aloud. " _Harkinian Music Labels. Bringing the stars to glory since 1987._"

"Congratulations Ike, you can read." Link jabbed at him and looked at the card, while Ike slugged him on the shoulder in a brotherly fashion. "Hm, this looks to be a recruiting agent's card, a Mr... Wario. Must have given it to her recently. The ink is still relatively fresh on the back. At most a day or two old." Ike flipped it over and it was a series of numbers. Probably the exact phone number to reach the agent in his off hours.

"So it looks like she was at a gig a few hours before she was murdered and given the card there." Samus spoke and the three detectives looked up at her with a questioning look. She rolled her eyes and gestured to the body with her pen. "Revealing clothes, seven inch heels, and enough perfume to choke a horse. No woman that isn't drunk or performing would wear thee clothes in this area."

Marth spoke with out thinking. "Says the woman who wears a jumpsuit that gives her a few cup sizes, douses herself in strip mall fragrance, and who wears heels where ever she goes." He realized that he was speaking and Ike made a low whistle at the statement. If any one had a death wish, the easiest way to die would be to bring up Samus' femininity, something she always had people judge her on.

Samus glared at him. "Another comment and I will see you on my slab." Marth nodded, knowing full well what Samus was capable of it. "Judging by her body temperature and color of skin, I would say she was killed shortly after midnight, two o'clock at the very latest. I'll have to tun some more tests on her when I get back to the lab."

Link moved the head a bit and grimaced as he saw the exit wound. Lyn's dark sea green hair was covered in blood and the bone fragments from where the back of her skull exploded on the ext wound. The pinkish grey matter of the brain hung over the exit wound and threatened to slop our of the pan that held it all together. "This is too clean to be just a random thrill kill. Looks professional."

Ike nodded and the three traced the area for any last shards of evidence. No bullet casing, so it must have been a revolver or the killer was tidy. The three regrouped and Link began to write things down as Marth and Ike spoke. When they finished their list, Link repeated it. "Contact next of kin to see if there is any. Check record for any previous convictions. Get a search warrant for her house, look for anything suspicious. Contact this Warrio and see where and what happened last night. I guess the rest of the information will be found out through wet work."

Ike nodded and they moved off to his car, a 1999 Silver LeSaber with Marth moving to his sedan and Link carpooling with him. The two began to get through the stagnate traffic. Even in the early morning of the day, the city was busy. Stores were just opening, and the local stock traders began to prepare for the day of trading. Marth pulled over to get something to devour for his breakfast, while Ike kept driving on.

Around a half an hour later Ike pulled into the garage of the precinct and made his way through the door. The burst of cool air woke him up as much as anything else and he moved up the flight of stairs to his desk. Climbing up three flights of stars, he opened the door and moved towards his desk. It was next to Marth's and Link's as well, and open spaced as he was not a ranked officer.

The captain, Alexander Aquila, was one of the few already there. He was preparing his office for the long day's work. Turning on lights and checking over the notes that were left for him by the night shift. As he poured himself a cup of coffee and pulled out some rewarmed breakfast from the morning before, he saw Ike. "Ike, come in." The thirty three year old gestured to Ike, who obeyed. "Sit, have some breakfast. You look as hungry as I feel."

"Thank you sir." Alexander scooped out some of the scrambled eggs and ham onto a plate while he ate the rest for himself. He passed Ike another mug of his coffee. Ike didn't know how famished he was until he began to eat, and soon he devoured what the captain gave him. "You can't be this early into work on your own accord. Who was murdered?"

Ike motioned for a laptop, once he finished wiping down his face. Aquila passed him it and after a few minutes of typing, produced the Department of Motor Vehicles picture of her. Passing it back to the Captain, Alexander looked through it shaking his head all the while. "Twenty-one... cut down while she was young." He looked at the image for a moment longer and began to make the necessary prints for the murder board. He sighed and looked back to Ike. After taking a a long swig from the scalding coffee, the young Captain spoke. "Well, I didn't just give you this position for you good looks. What is on the agenda."

Ike nodded and replied. "Well, standard procedure would be followed first. Check for next of kin: family both of water and blood. Check financial, look for any irregularities. After that, previous incarcerations if any."

The captain nodded and gestured for Ike to follow him through the ghosts of humans still hard at work from the night. Sipping his coffee, the captain spoke again. "That is the standard procedures, but there had to be some leads that were evident at the crime scene. The evidence speaks for itself at he crime scene, all you need to do is follow it."

Ike nodded as he stopped with the captain at the printer. "Well, Samus thinks that Lyn may have been at a gig last night, so we will check the local clubs in the area. She also has a recruiting agent card from Harkinain records that looks recent."

As the picture of Lyn printed off along with other information she had on her courtesy of the DMV, Alexander whistled. "Harkinain Records? That privilege may just be something worth killing for." There was no hint of sarcasm in the Capitan's voice.

The Harkinain family was one of, if not the, richest families in the city. With wealth unimaginable, they had a hand in just about everything. From city politics to a string of nightclubs, there was always something that either had the three triangles of the Harkinain family logo or its blessing. Though their most famous investment was a music label company that patronized or discovered talent. They did have strict minimums , and to be even considered was just as good as being accepted. So there would be plenty of competition for that.

They approached the white marker board, and Alexander pinned the picture of Lyn up there with a magnet. Ike uncapped a black dry erase marker and began to fill in the pertinent information on the time line. "Midnight to two o'clock in the morning- Lyn is murdered." Ike muttered to himself as he scratched down other information. Labeling persons of Interest, suspects, and evidence on the board so if any came in, they would label it as such. Ike the returned to his desk and began to type away, looking for information that would be prevalent in the murder.

Three hours later, the three detectives were around the murder board. Marth, much to the dieting Link's eternal torture, had a chocolate frosted cake doughnut in his teeth as he typed away the information on Lyn's financial history. Ike took another sip from the bitter coffee, wincing more at the taste rather than the heat. "Link, what is Lyn's prior criminal record?"

The blond detective picked up a file and flipped through it until he came across the page he wanted. "Not a whole lot, mind you. She did have a parking ticket twice, but she paid it the same day and was scratched from the record. She was a person of interest in a few brake-ins while she was still in a foster home. No charges were brought against her." He flipped through the file and shook his head. "She was given up at birth, parents didn't even give her a name or their own for some reason. Next of kin looks like it is out of the park."

Ike nodded. "Any foster parents she was close to?"

Link looked through the papers and with some defeat shook his head. "No, she stayed with each parent for about a year. I'll check them to see if they can fill us in on her personality and relationships she had with others."

Marth washed down the last of his baked good before speaking. "Hey, I just got a hold of Lyn's financial information." There was some clicking with him suddenly pausing. A few more key clicks later, he spoke again. "Usually every other week she deposits round a thousand dollars, some times a bit more if she has it labeled as 'gig money'. Bus then a week ago, she withdrew half of her savings."

Ike looked over to him. "How much is half?"

Marth typed in a few more words and looked over to Ike. "How much is twenty grand to you?" that got their attention. They moved over to the other computer and looked at the financial. It was clean as Marth said, save the fact that twenty thousand dollars was withdrawn in cash. "That is a lot of greenbacks. What is someone going to do with twenty thousand?"

Link shrugged. "Quite a lot actually. Some new-ish cars cost around that much, you could buy plenty of jewelry, and more then enough guns to supply a small army."

Ike nodded. "But you saw what she was wearing. Costume jewelry and store brand clothing. Clearly that twenty thousand were meant for some one else." He felt a tap on the shoulder and saw an officer pass him the file he asked for. He accepted it with a nod of thanks and looked it over. "Just got Warrio's file, and apparently..." Ike said as he pinned up Warrio's most recent mugshot on the board. If there was ever the embodiment of an old, overweight short man with a porn star mustache from the seventies, it was Warrio. "he has quite the record. Assault, verbal assault, battery, solicitation and public intoxication."

Link chuckled. "I like the sound of this guy already. What is his most recent recommendation for good citizenship?"

Ike continued. "He is currently on probation for threatening some one a..." Ike's lips had the faintest of smirks. "Lyndis Forecastle. Apparently charges were filed after he threatened her at one of the nightclubs saying 'if you don't do that again I will fuckin' put you in the ground, bitch.'"

Marth picked up the phone to make the call to Harkinain records. "If that doesn't sound like suspicion, I don't know what is." He typed in the number he had on the card. "Yes, this is Detective Marth with the police. Did a Mr. Warrio show up for work today... He didn't... I'm sorry I can't say it is an ongoing case. Well, thank you." He hung up the phone. "Apparently Warrio didn't show up for work today, and his job was on the line that if he was late one more time, he would have been fired."

Link looked to Ike, "Do we have residential information?" Ike nodded and grabbed his coat. "Well, let's not keep him waiting."

* * *

The squad cars not far behind him, Ike and the other three twisted around the boulevard on their war to Warrio's house. The tires squealed behind them as they screeched to a stop. They approached a large, single story white house, and Ike was the first out of the car, bullet proof vest on. He withdrew his Glock 19 and made sure that it was fully loaded. Link and Marth were the next out, side arms at the ready and Link with the warrant on hand. Two other officers came out with some much more powerful firepower, just in case Warrio was waiting for them.

Link was at the front and when the others were ready for the breach, he pounded on the door. "Mr. Warrio, open up! We have a warrant!" No reply so they did so again. The same silence followed. Tired, Link nodded to one of the officers, who then went to kick the door down. "Check every corner!"

Ike was the next one in and he took the left. He had done several raids in his time, so he let his sense of hearing take him. He drowned out the sounds of the others and tried to focus on anything that would give a sound that this is where the person was.

He searched with his ears and in the distance he heard the whine of an analog television. He followed the sound as the others around him yelled CLEAR at the top of their lungs. Ike followed the sound and came across a door that was closed. He touched the door with the back of his hand and opened it.

There was the television with the black and white fuzz playing in the background. He opened it up and was met with the bitter oder of garlic and cheep cigars that smelled like burning liquorish. He scanned his undefended position with his side arm before he saw the chair. He saw someone's arm on it, a pudgy arm. Ike moved in closer, gun at the ready if something was going to happen.

As he circled around to see who was in it, he knew why there had been no reply.

"Over here!" He yelled and the sound of footsteps came closer. Marth and Link came through the door and saw what Ike saw as he holstered his side arm. There, in a red velvet chair, was the garroted corpse of Warrio sitting in a pool of his own blood.


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, here is another chapter out faster then the last one. I hope it's better then the last. **

**Tyrianis- I knew Lyn had a full name but I forgot to look it up before I posted the chapter. I fixed it and will use the real in name game. Thanks for reminding me**

**As always, remember to review**

* * *

As the crime scene units rolled the body out of the building, Ike finished giving his statement with another police officer of the events that happened. As the cop nodded and walked away, Ike stepped over to his two other counterparts. Marth and Link were unnerved, as was Ike to an extent. Two murders, both related to each other in the span of a few short hours. Samus gave her information to them and it was just about the same. Between midnight and two, clean with out a mess. This had professional written all over it.

Link looked over to Ike and gave a weak chuckle to lighten up the situation. "Well, there goes our chief suspect." Ike smiled in response to the gallows humor. It was true, they lost one suspect and now had a new victim on their hands. Ordinarily, this would be given to other detectives of homicide so that they could focus on one case instead of multiple. However, due to a variety of reasons, like the other detectives took their vacation leave to a international resort and city budget cuts, this would be added to their plate on of Lyndis.

Marth sighed and the other two followed him through the hose, where they began to look for anything suspicious. "There goes my hope for an open shut case. And since these two are connected, I can sense the media fire storm." They shuttered at the mere thought of it. While they never had to work on a high value case, they experienced a few in their time as beat cops.

The hounds of he media would go for any one or anything that looked or acted like a cop when one like this rolled around. And if there was a flood of camera men when socialite Daisy was indicted on shoplifting charges they could only wonder in fear on what would await them if Harkinain was in the mix.

They entered his home office, in which to find an outdated computer and several files that looked as if they were left there a few nights ago. A mug of slate old coffee was on top of the files and using the gloved hands to remove them, they looked over the files. Assuming they could decipher Warrio's sloppy hand writing.

"Musician potentials... charts of monies...I deserve a raise folder. This guy was clearly missing a few screws. This chart looks like he hired a kid to just draw some bouncy lines." Link stated as he placed the folders aside while Marth shook the mouse of the computer, finding that it was still on.

"Alright, let's see what is on here." He looked through the folders and found that they contained mainly the same thing. Text documents about musicians he was looking at recruiting for labels, one after the other after the other. A look at the Internet browser hammered the reason home while this guy was single. " hotgirlz4u, makemegrowfast, f3tishfilmz - Link this is really weird with you breathing on my neck while I am reading this."

"Sorry." The blond whispered, and the three looked at some of the images they were looking at and began to just wonder how someone could actually enjoy that. Link twisted his head as an image came on the screen. "How...how can a girl be that flexible? How can you get that past the gag reflex, and still be able to use your tongue?"

"Oh, don't worry, it is quite possible." A new voice drew them out of what they were looking at. They all spun around embarrassed like kids with hands in the cookie jars. Samus was there with as somewhat annoyed look on her face. She held out something in a bag that was covered in Warrio's blood. Ike took it and looked at it. It was a usb with some dental floss around it. "I found this in his throat with the dental floss tied around it on one of his front teeth. So what ever is on that he was trying to hide."

Marth raised an eye brow. "Why would he swallow a usb? There are other ways to hide it."

Ike nodded. "It's an old prisoner's trick. They usually do this to smuggle in drugs to prison and it's easier to hide and can't be detected by the old squat an cough method. They take the contraband, tie some floss around it. Then around the tooth they will retrieve it from. Then," Ike made a dramatized swallow. "hen ever they need it. They just pull the floss out and then the goods follow."

The other two shuttered. Samus smirked and turned back to Ike. "I'll run both autopsies and try to get you the information as soon as I can. But I have plans tonight so do not call me past eight." She jabbed fingers at the others before turning around and walking out the door. Swinging her hips and ass in a very seductive manner followed by the clacking on her heels on the floor

Link shrugged. "Does anyone else thinks she is a dominatrix in her spare time?' The other two raised their hands and link nodded. "Well, we probably should let the Crime Scene Investigation unit do their work and we can do ours." He looked down at his phone and looked back to the others. "Also, the warrant came in for Lyn's apartment."

Marth raised his hand. "I'll take that. Looks like it could be relatively straightforward."

Ike nodded. "I'll head back to the precinct, run through more records and it will only be a matter of time before some one comes in for them."

Link put the phone back after reading a last text message. "Speaking of which, Lyn's boyfriend just came in. An... Eliwood if that is correct. I'll head over to Harkinain studios to see if I can get a look at Warrio's office." As he went for the door, Ike could hear him mutter under his breath. "If I can get past the lawyers first."

* * *

Ike passed Eliwood a cup of coffee, and the young red head took it with shaking hands. "Anything else I can do for you, Mr. Eliwood? Before I have to ask the questions?" Eliwood shook his head and drank the hot coffee with out complain. In a little carrier next to him, was an infant boy with the same hair as his father. After Eliwood finished the Styrofoam cup he placed it down on the coffee table. "Is that your son?"

Eliwood looked down to the small frail child and nodded. "Yes. Our little hero, Roy. He is a great gift to us..." he wiped away a tear and looked back to Ike. "I was going to propose to her tonight. I knew I shouldn't have let her gone to the gig. But she was so adamant, and she needed to get some of her own time. I..."

Ike nodded and looked back to him. "Eli, can I call you that?" Eliwood nodded and Ike continued. "Eli, did you notice anything strange or unusual with Lyn? Any thing that looked or seemed out of character?"

He shook his head. "She was a bit stressed out, but when you have a little bundle of joy that wakes you up every two hours, that sets you on edge." Ike smiled sadly with him. "She was more excited then usual about last night. It was to be her biggest show, well over a hundred people she said. She always wanted to get bigger and bigger crowds so she could raise Roy with out having to worry about money."

Ike then asked the question he knew would be the hardest. "Did you and Lyndis get into any arguments or fights?"

Eliwood laughed without humor. "What relationship has no flaws? I'm not saying we were perfect, but our fights were over only major disagreements and the farthest they ever wen was shouting for a short while. When Roy was born, we settled any arguments in a quite manner. We never got physical at any one of the fights we had."

Ike nodded. "Did Lyndis have any enemies, someone that would have wanted her dead?"

Eliwood shuttered. "I couldn't imagine some one who would want her dead. She was the easiest person to know and befriend. Though she was an orphan, so she was given the short end of the stick while she was in a foster home but I couldn't see any grudges that would last longer then the time she was at them."

"Any competition or rival musicians that seemed to give Lyn a bit of a headache?"

Eliwood shook his head. "She never mentioned any. Though," he said in a manner that seemed to remember something. "she did come home one night in tears. She was saying that some one at a club began to heckle her from the night and was taking pictures of her as she was walking home. She didn't describe him to me, but she said he was agile as a cat."

Ike raised an eyebrow and jotted that down. "Where were you between midnight and two this morning?"

Eliwood ran his fingers through his hair. "I was at home, alone with Roy. He woke me up at one to change him." He smiled sadly as he rocked the child back and forth. "I still can't believe that she is gone. Like this is some sort of a trick she played on me."

Ike nodded. Inside, he thought that it could be him, but it was pure speculation. He had to ask one more question. "Do you have any guns in your house, Eli?"

He shook his head. "No, we don't keep any firearms in the house. We do have a few swords Lyn got on her trip back to Japan that belonged to her family. But our apartment won't let us have guns and Lyn doesn't want our child raised around such things."

Ike rose and gave Eliwood his business card. "If you have any questions, call that number." Eliwood nodded and Ike led him to the elevator. The two shook hands and Ike turned back around. He was going back to his desk when he saw a gray hoodie wearing woman next to it. She had jaw line long hair and piercing red eyes, courtesy of her contacts. With an athletic frame that was both attractive and fully capable of beating you shitless with it if you made one sexy secretary comment. "Is something the matter Sheik?"

Sheik nodded. "There is. The Captain wants to see you in his office as soon as you can. And by the way things look, you may want to hurry." If it was Sheik delivering the message, that must have meant that the captain was tied up at the moment. And that was a bad sign nine out of ten times.

Ike hurried over to the office, which the smell of cigarette smoke hit his nose first and saw an ashtray full of smoldering butts that was obviously clean this morning. Alexander was on the phone with a fresh cigarette rolling in his lips "Look commissioner, I am undermanned here and with my other Homicide detectives gone on vacation... I could use the help any of the other... yes I KNOW this has been a violent year but... Send me ANYONE! I have the pap-... Yes, thank you commissioner you have been a big help." He slammed the phone so hard that it caused even Ike to wince. Alex spun his attention to Ike. "For the love of all that is holy, tell me you have something."

Ike shook his head. "Were running all other loose ends, but I'll check the bodies once Samus has something."

Alexander nodded and Ike knew the Capitan was on edge. Taking a long and angry drag from the cigarette, he looked back to Ike. "Fifteen. That is how many calls I got from both local and state wide rag magazines asking about the killings. They are making this scandalous material and are asking where we are in the case and who is going to get arrested. And I swear one of them I answered at least three times. Some guy claiming he has so much information about Lyn and why she was murdered that he would lend us his skills and talents in the case."

Ike shrugged, "why not take the offer?"

The captain reached into his desk and pulled out a thermos of extra strong coffee that may as well be the powder itself and poured himself a glass. "He wants a 'mere' thousand just to walk through the door." He took a long draw from it and looked back to Ike. "I know this is a lot to ask of you seeing Mario and Luigi are on vacation to Italy but you need to get this closed. The case is already a few hours old and we have enough paparazzi breathing down our necks it's almost like Daisy shoplifting all over again."

Ike nodded. "We will do every thing we can but we have to go through the same procedures as everyone else. We can't give any special treatment for the cases."

Alexander nodded and looked out the window, where thankfully there wasn't a crowd of rag journalists. He rubbed his forehead and looked back to Ike. "Work what you can and go home at a normal time." Ike was about to object but Alexander raised a hand. "The case will be there and there is no sense of you looking over evidence half asleep. Malon's coffee can only do so much after you get use to the taste." Ike chuckled at the weak, but true, joke. The poor intern couldn't be told the truth about how strong the coffee she made. Ike swore sometimes he could only cut it with a knife at points.

He felt his cell phone vibrate and he looked at it. He looked up and reached for the door. "Samus just finished the autopsies. She says she found something." Alexander nodded and looked out the window, getting ready for the public affairs storm that was going to come.

* * *

"Marth, old boy, if you ever live in a sty like this... have your neighbors burn you with it."Marth muttered to himself as he moved through the apartment that belonged to Eliwood and Lyndis. In his defense, he wasn't being picky or over exaggerating, this could be viewed as a pigsty. Papers and little kid clothing were scattered all around the floor. Eliwood was off for questioning and it was a decent distance from the precinct so he had plenty of time.

So far it was revealing noting of interest, or something that would point to their killer or killers. The laptop was off and required a password, what files they had were important financial papers, but nothing about the ten thousand dollars withdrawn. Marth really didn't expect it to be in the folders, that would be too easy.

He still had a few rooms left to check, the master bedroom and the child's room. He left the dining room and moved over the creaky old wood floor and moved into the child's room. It was a dark blue and was perhaps the worst kept part of the house. Toys and other pieces of clothing were scattered across the floor. He moved ass gracefully as he could, thanking his stars every time that he was wearing shoes every time he stepped on something. He opened the closet and moved the packages of diapers and other infant needs around. He looked back there and tried to see exactly what it was.

His eye brow arched as he saw it was a small boot, bound in leather with a pen on it. He pulled it out and he examined it to confirm it was a journal of some sort. He opened it to the first page and saw Lyndis' name at the bottom of the page. He flipped through the first few pages and looked at the last page. It was dated just yesterday,

_I can't believe I am this fortunate! Over a hundred people are going to be watching me tonight! Just another step on the way to fame, and the manager even whispered that there would be some recruiting agents in the crowd. One can only hope._

_I haven't slept in days. I know I gave him the money and he swore on his grave he would leave us alone. I still want to know what exactly happened. He said that we would be in contact soon, but I don't know weather he will just take the money and run with it. I just hope that is the end we see of him. Bastard took all of my previous gig money. Eli would throw a fit if he found out. But thankfully it's my savings account and not ours. But soon I hope we could share one. I want Roy to have two loving parents and not two distant ones._

Marth put the packages back and slid the diary into a plastic bag and placed it inside his coat. He would read more of that over later. Now he just had to figure out who exactly she was talking about. Now he just had one room left to check. Then it was back to the precinct.

* * *

The AC hit Link the minute he steeped through the door. Everything was polished to a gleam and the white marble hit threatened to blind him for a minute, but Link moved on to the receptionist's desk. Once he got there, he saw a young woman in her twenties. She looked up to him from her computer and Link showed her the badge. He was about to speak, but he never got the chance as she raised a finger and hit a few numbers on the phone and spoke into her head set. "Sir... yes we have someone with the police here... no he is local... I'll send him up." She hit the end call button and spoke to him. "Room 204, he is expecting you there."

Link was a bit confused on what she meant, but he nodded reluctantly and moved to the stairwell and proceeded to the second story via stairs. Who could be expecting him? He only had to deal with corporations once or twice in his life, and all he got were stonewalling lawyers. As he reached the second floor, he looked down the hallway and saw room 204. It was a big glass door with no name or title on it. Just room 204.

Link approached it and rapped hard on the wooden part of it. "It opens." Link turned the door handle and the second he steeped through the door, he thought he entered a different world. There was different forms of abstract art carved from obsidian colored rock, a fish tank with the most exotic type of species in them and chairs made out of steel and plastic.

He looked over to the one who was in and saw a man in his mid to late forties, with sandy hair and piercing green eyes. Though he was in a suit, the jacket was unbuttoned and the tie was loosened. Link looked at the name plate and saw the name, "Mr. Harkinain" in bold letters. Link instinctively straighted his back as Mr. Harkinain gestured for him to sit. Link did so hesitantly and Harkinain spoke. "Please, make yourself comfortable. It's not every day I get to speak to our cities finest."

Link didn't know weather he was serious or that he was mocking him. It was hard with such a man. Mr. Harkinain poured himself a glass of dark brown whiskey and offered a glass to Link, who politely refused, stating that he was still on duty. "So, what brings you to my studio to day officer...?

"Detective Link." Link said and he remained seated while Mr. Harkinian stood and looked out the window. "And I am here on the case of Mr. Warrio-"

"What has he done now?" Mr. Harkinian said as he took a drink. "What has the 'have been' up and done this time? I told him not to be late, what has he done to be late?"

"Well for starters, he's dead." That got a reaction out of Harkinain. He turned around with a surprised look and looked at Link weirdly as if he just spoke un ending gibberish. "We found him murdered this morning."

He sat back down and looked at Link. "Dead?" Link nodded and he ran his fingers through his hair. "Damn, sorry. It just I always thought he would leave this world by other means, but murdered? I didn't think it was possible."

Link took all of this in with his memory. "So what exactly did Warrio do for the studio?"

"Well, he was one of our finest recruiting agents. Was with me when I started this venture from the very beginning. Brought me much talent over the years, but they were not to kind to him. Around 2000 or so, he really began to roll down hill. He became a morbid alcoholic and said liquor made him do some really stupid things. I assume you have already seen his lengthy record? I would have fired him a while back, but he was one of the old guard, so I had to be patient with him."

Link nodded and spoke. "Did Warrio have an office here?"

Harkinain shook his head. "No, he worked at home as all other agents do."

"Did Warrio seem out of character in the past week or so? More paranoid then ever or change of mood from the usual norm?"

Harkinain nodded and pulled out a folder. Link took it and opened it. It was a folder of Lyn and the lyrics to some of her work. "He was really excited about this one. He ran into a few dry spells and couldn't find the talent he use to. But he was on me for a week telling me about her, and eventually I gave in and I could see that she had the talent necessary. I just hope she will prove off to be everything he imagined her to be. I don't want Warrio's last star to be a failure."

Link passed back the folder. "She's been murdered as well." It looked as if someone struck Mr. Harkinain with a fist. "She was found dead early this morning."

Harkinain downed the last of his contents in the glass. "I can't believe it..."

"Mr. Harkinain, where were you between midnight and two this morning?"

Mr. Harkinain tought for a moment. "I was at my house. My daughter Zelda and my nephew Lucas came back from school for the holidays. We were celebrating to about one, where I took my sleeping pill and passed out at around one thirty. I have several witnesses and security camera footage I can give you. Here are their numbers."

He scratched down the numbers and passed it to Link, who began to look over them. "If there is anything my company can do to aid you in your investigation, let me know."

Link nodded, "I will hold you to that."

* * *

"Well, I managed to narrow the time of death to roughly one o'clock for both of our vics. " Samus said to Ike as she walked around the corpses. "Lyn's blood alcohol level was .044 so she may have been impaired at the time of her death. Cause of death was single gunshot wound to the head, from my guess it was a .45 caliber weapon."

Ike nodded and looked back to Samus. "So was there anything unusual about her death or that you discovered on her body?"

"Well, she didn't fight back there are no defensive injuries. Also, I guess she fell down due to the seven inch heels on uneven cement. There is some bruising on her hips and arm where it looks like she tried to break her fall. She had all of her jewelry on her, all of which is costume and nothing of real value. No finger prints and there were some powder on her face, meaning she was shot at point blank. Given the spacing of said powder, our killer was using a silencer of some sort."

Ike looked over to the other slab. "And our fat one?"

"Same time, but surprisingly sober for this one. Thee was plenty of alcohol damage to his organs and his lungs looked like coal. The wire used to cut the throat was a musical instrument, but probably piano wire. Also it was relatively quick, someone strong did this to him. We did find a boot print and cut marks on the chair he was killed in. Meaning that this is some long piano wire and the assassin used the chair as leverage against our victim. With all that considered, he died with in thirty agonizing seconds."

Ike nodded. "Computer department is running through the encrypted flash drive, but it will be a while before they come up with anything. Could you give me an idea of who did these crimes based on this evidence?"

Samus shook her head. "Anyone can shoot a gun that easily point blank, but for Warrio, I would say some one tall, relatively strong and with a shoe size of about a ten." Ike nodded and Samus shooed him away, meaning that she had nothing left to tell him. He nodded and headed back to the entrance of the morgue. Samus looked down at her watch and saw that it was about noon, so maybe she could take a brake.

She pulled off her gloves and went outside of the operating room. She pulled off her smock and hung it up when two gloves covered her eyes and whispered low in to her ear. "Guess who?"

Samus was shocked at first but she regained some of her calm. "Well, your wearing silk gloves so you are wealthy. You hands aren't calloused so you never seen work." Her hands ran up the gloves and felt the design on them. It was three triangles placed close together. "Zelda!"

"Sammy!" The two spun around and the old friends embraced each other with a deep hug and a kiss on each cheek.

Samus laughed and pushed Zelda away. "Damn, girl. You scared me."

Zelda shrugged in her water silk dress. "Samus, you are surrounded by corpses each day. How does that not scare you?"

"The thing is that I DON'T expect the living to show up at work." Zelda rolled her eyes and Samus continued. "Still, what brings you here? I didn't expect you until later tonight."

"I came in last night, but father kept me occupied. So are we still on for tonight? I managed to get Peach and Elincia to be able to come with us to Smash. I even managed to get a pad line up for us tonight. We can find you that hot guy you were looking for, or if you still play both fields..."

Samus pushed Zelda again, "Yes, I am still free tonight. I could look forward to sharing some drinks with my girlfriends."

Zelda nodded and pressed down her dress. "Well, come on then. It's my first day back in the city. I'm buying lunch."

Samus grabbed her white coat and followed her out the door. "Like I'm gonna complain."


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the delay on this chapter, I was out of town for a few days with out reliable internet. I will introduce some more Nintendo characters from other games, primarily Fire Emblem and Legend of Zelda games. Any ways, remember to review.**

* * *

"Heavens I have never felt so damned useless in my whole life." Ike swore quietly to himself as he placed down another piece of financial information to the bottom of the desk. Nine hours he had been peering over all the information he could about the two vics that bared the need of a warrant. There was nothing, absolutely nothing that was connecting the two together. Warrio's financial didn't show a deposit of ten thousand dollars or even an amount that would even lead them to such a a theory that he had part of the money. Crime scene information didn't tell him anything new that Samus didn't tell him. There was no tread on the shoes to narrow down the type of shoe that was used on the back of the chair. But that did tell them either it was worn down completely or they were treadles leather shoes. Small help, but help none of the less.

He looked over to Link, who just hung up the phone. The blond detective shrugged and gestured to the phone. "That was the last witness Mr. Harkinain gave me. They confirm he was at his residence through the night and fell asleep there. Footage of the cameras will show that he didn't leave his place at all during our time frame."

Marth put down the diary and spoke. "Well, he is a very wealthy man. Latest guess is that his name, alone, is worth roughly seven hundred and fifty million dollars." The others to did a low whistle. "So it is well within the realm of possibility that he had someone do this for him."

Ike nodded. "It is in the realm, but on the opposite end of it right now. We lack motive, the man could have easily just bought either of them off as if he was deciding what he wanted on a hamburger. There is something else he we are missing. Something right in front of us rather then the extreme. Usually the grunt work is what brings in the guilty party in these cases."

Link agreed. "We could just be over thinking this even if they are related some how. Maybe two of their enemies rubbed them out by coincidence. Granted it is a long shot, but it is possible."

"Improbable at best. All we have is conjecture and two dead bodies. Thankfully the media is playing this low, though the rags are eating this up." Marth said offhanded and returned to the diary. He seemed to be enthralled with such a book. Ike nodded and looked back to the papers, they would find something sooner or later.

Alexander came over to the three desks and looked down to each of them, he was wearing his trench coat, symbolizing that he was just about to head out. "So are we still at square one?" With three nods, Alexander sighed. "Well, some of the time we run into the cases we have to slam our heads against the wall. But we come back the next morning refreshed and ready to take on the world. Go home and get some rest. Or what ever it is you young stallions do to relax after a long day's work. I just got to finish some stuff up in the office, and if I see any of you jokers still here or not heading towards the door, I will drag your asses out myself. Are we clear on that?"

The three detectives nodded and Alexander gave them a small, simple smile. The three partners began to put their equipment away. Alexander over heard their conversations of their plans. Ike was going to go home and relax without a care in the world. Link's little brother was over at a friends house for the day so he was going to spend some time in the city. Marth was probably going to spend it with his neighbor who just went through a rough relationship.

Alexander went back to his office and began to get the reports ready for the night shift. When he entered the room, he saw Sheik getting all of the files in order for him. "I suppose I could do something to help you after all." She said to him with out looking up as he moved over to help put the folders in their proper space.

"You still hate me for that don't you?" She stopped and looked back at him with the piercing red eyes he knew and loved. "Well, hate is too strong of a word. But you understand what I am asking?"

Sheik sighed and pulled back her hood, revealing more of the face she hid from the others. "Annoyed is the word I would have used. But yes, I am still annoyed at you for that."

Alexander put the last folders in the pile and made sure to put all of the information about the double murder was on top. "It had to be done Sheik. For both our personal and our professional lives. I was in a very dangerous department and I needed to be sure that you wouldn't be hurt. Vice detectives often are the most threatened and so are their attachments."

She huffed and crossed her arms. "I can look out for myself. You know that well enough then as I do. We could have kept it secret, and not let anyone else know. Nobody would have suspected it. I was the secretary and you were just a detective one floor above me."

Alexander laughed without humor. "Sheik, look around you. We work in a building full of detectives, it would have been discovered eventually. And you know how the council dislikes in work relationships. If there was even the rumor that we were romantically involved, we would be transfered to different departments. If/when we were discovered, of course."

She shrugged. "You are the Captain, and our circumstances are different. Maybe we could..." She trailed off the sentence as she played with a strand of loose hair. Alexander smiled and saw that there was a bit of moisture at the edge of her eyes. He wiped it away with his free hand and placed it on her shoulder. She looked at him with a desire to dive into his arms, but resisted, given that the door was open and people could see them if they looked. Alex's words brought her back to reality.

"We need to focus on our work first. I have the city council quarterly meeting coming up and you have all of your work to do. This is best for us right now." She looked as if her face was deflated balloon but then he slugged the shoulder with a smile on his lips. "Come on, I know a pub not far that have some of the best burgers you ever had in your life. I'll buy."

Sheik smiled, but it was full of sadness. She pulled her hood back over her face and the two left the building, both in despite need of comfort food.

* * *

Ike pulled up into the parking lot of his apartment complex. It was a on the edge of the city, but couldn't be considered as a part of the suburbs. A large brick building, two stories and many apartment's across it was his home. His land lady, Titania, was a kind woman who understood the unpredictability of a paycheck in service to the city. Thankfully, paycheck came in today so he had the next two months of rent in his billfold now. So that was a burden that would be off his shoulders for the moment.

Getting out of his car, he rubbed his eyes as the full moon came over head. He made his way over to the closest apartment, which was Titania's room. The summers night was thankfully cooler then it was in the day, so he wasn't sweating a lake as he was on his midday brake. He approached the door and gave a hard rap against it. He heard some movement on the other side before Titania opened the door. Her long braided red hair was almost down to her waist and she smiled to Ike as some young mother would. "Good evening Ike. What brings you to me at this hour?"

Ike passed her the envelope and she opened it. "There is eight hundred dollars, enough to cover this month and the one after. I hope it was on time."

She nodded as she counted the bills, satisfied that there was eight hundred in a variety of bills, just as Ike said. "It was, and as I have told you at least a thousand times, don't be too overly concerned about a few days late payment. You are on the cities pay roll, and I know how rough it is and unpredictable the paydays are with the politicking of the council. Thank you, Ike."

He nodded to her, "No, thank you." She closed the door and Ike made his way to the stairwell. Despite all that he went through today , he couldn't help but have a small tune on his lips as he whistled it.

Said whistling stopped when he saw that Aimee, a neighbor of his who lived right next to his own apartment. While she was no means a bad neighbor, she was a bit too... driven. She was a college student who had a fascination with fortune telling. While Ike didn't put much stock in divination of horoscopes, palm reading, tea leaves, or tarot cards, Aimee practically devoured such things as if they were a vital sustenance for her.

She claimed she had some gypsy blood in her, and from the way she dressed it would appear she was one. But with a simple cowl and other silken garments on, there were a variety of ethnicities she could be drawing upon. Ike was just thankful that she still had her head was still square on her shoulders. Things would be very interesting if they weren't.

Thankfully she was completely not on the edge of insanity, but she did hound Ike when he left for work at a normal time to have her tell his fortune. Each and every time she managed to find some way of including herself in his fortune. That led Ike to believe she had some interest in him, though it was not confirmed. But he could safely assume that based on many of her tellings.

She saw him and she spun around with an almost childish glee on her face. "So, Ike, did my fortune come true? Did you-"

Ike raised a hand to stop her. "No Aimee, nothing happened in your most recent divination."

She huffed and put her hands on her hips while she read his face, to see if he was telling the truth. "No diamond rings, not heartaches for a close neighbor, and not even a spark of lust today?" Each time Ike shook his head. When she saw that he was telling the truth, she sighed. "Well, the tides of fortune are ever changing. Maybe I could try again and see if a new telling will reveal what will happen."

"Not tonight Aimee. Maybe later this week." Ike replied before picking up the pace to his door and going inside before Aimee had the chance to ask when. Heavens that woman was annoying when she got stuck on her fortune telling business.

He turned on the lights to his spartan like apartment building. One kitchen, one bath, one bedroom, and one general room. Most of his furniture was that of donation from others or picked up at second hand stores. While they did look their age, they were well worn in and were comfortable enough that Ike didn't offer a single complaint about them. If he had any, it was his own damn fault for picking them.

He looked to his answering machine ad saw that there was a blinking 1 on it, meaning someone left him a message. He hit the play button and the mechanical voice picked up. "**A message from three-thirty pm**." There was an harsh mechanical whine before the massage was in a familiar voice.

"Hey Ike, it's your little sister Mist. I'm just calling to see how things are going and since you are not there to answer, I guess I might as well say what is going on until you can return this call." Ike smiled as his little sister always tried to get a hold of him while he was still at work, even though she was in a completely different time zone and she always thought it was the same.

"Studying in Dublin has always been a dream and with the semester picking up, I am in for it now. I hope things are better now that you got the apartment I helped you picked out and that you managed to get a detective's badge. I'll try to be sending you some gifts I got on my tours and some to mom and dad. With the semester winding down I may be able to visit in a few weeks, as the holidays will begin soon for us. Well that is basically all I have to say, try to get a hold of me soon. You know my number. I love you and tell the folks the same. Goodbye."

The machine squealed again and Ike chuckled to himself. His sister applied herself to academics with the utmost vigor, and college abroad was one of her dreams ever since she graduated valedictorian from her high school. She wanted to be a doctor of some sorts, specialization of which was unchosen at this point in time. But she would find something and she would apply herself with all the skill and zeal she did back in her normal school.

Ike relaxed in his sofa and was about read to turn on the television to drown out his mind when there was a knock at the door. He got up as it happened again and opened the door. He half expected it to be Aimee again but much to his surprise it was his other neighbor, Oscar. Though he lived a few apartments down the way, he made a habit of visiting Ike when he had the free time. "Ike, you left early for work today. Something come up?"

Ike chuckled a t the blind man, whose sense of hearing was increased to compensate for vision. "Something did come up, but I am afraid I can't discuss it with you as it is an ongoing case." The teacher nodded and Ike spoke again. "Do you have any of your cooking left over? I feel I could use some of it after my work today."

Oscar laughed. "Of course I do. Even my two little brothers can't eat all of it. I always have some left over." Following Oscar out the door, Ike went to relax before eventually passed to to the bed that was calling for him.

* * *

Marth closed his own door behind him with what one could be observed as a slam. "What a stuck up annoying bitch." He muttered in his head as he removed his coat and dress shirt. Here he was being the kind one who would take his neighbor who went through a rough brake up to forget about the guy and celebrate her independence. All what happened was she complained and complained about him all the way through dinner. God, she would always find a way to get back to the subject of him. He actually began to sympathize with the boyfriend in this rare case.

He sat down in a leather recliner with a glass of dry white wine on the night stand next to him. In a white tee shirt and dress pants, he grabbed the goblet and brought it to his lips. The kerosene sharpness of the white wine was a welcomed taste to his mouth as he blocked out the memories of the night with it. He checked the aged label and nodded at the five year old brew.

He looked around his two story house and mused to himself. His grandparents left it to him in their will as a last laugh to all of their offspring who were sucking up to them as a way to get the house. Built to house a family of eight, Marth had very little use of all the rooms. Sure he would invite Link and Ike over once in a while, but even then... it felt almost too alone here.

He took another sip and thought about his life ahead of him. He was twenty-four, just starting his career as a homicide detective with plenty of potential ahead of him. His taste for the finer things in life, such as the wine he was drinking, often made jokes about his sexuality behind his back. And even sometimes, right to his face. He was a metrosexual man, not homosexual. Though he could see why many people believed him to be the later rather then the former. But he still thought that all of them were still jackasses even if they considered it.

Another drink and he wondered about filling this house with children. Marth was well aware that he was in no hurry to do so, after all. He was still relatively new in his career as law, and he wanted to be a bit more stable, both financially and job-wise, before he even thought about settling down. He was, however, no stranger to the female species. As much as he hated to admit it, his supposed gayness helped him get laid _a lot _in high school. He was no fool on how children were made, but in the end he had never really found the right person to actually have them with.

As he reached the end of his glass, he though about her. Some one sophisticated to understand him, who wasn't afraid of voicing their opinion, and someone who would be there. He didn't care if they had a spotty past. The past was the past and to change it was just as futile as trying to destroy one's own shadow.

He poured himself another glass and breathed in the aromatic flavors before he had the taste of the wine pass over his tongue. Though finding someone who would fit the description was something else all together in its own right. He wanted to go through one more glass before the night was over, and by the way he was going, the night was still ahead of him in its fullest. "I'll drink to that." He said aloud, to no one but himself before he drank the contents of the glass.

* * *

In the city, there are dozens of nightclubs. Some famous, infamous, or a combination of the two. Some were as old as the elders of the city, others were not even a year old. Yet through all of them: the ones that were reminiscent to the prohibition era, the ones that looked nothing more then your typical daytime drama put to reality, and even the ones that were borderline deranged with their design... there was one that stood out from them all.

There was one nightclub that appealed to both crowds, the young and the old. The hipsters and the party goers alike. That one night club was a combination of two buildings connected only by a narrow hallway. That club was called Smash.

The nightclub was ran by the less sane of the Hand brothers, while the more mental stable one ran the mayor position of the city. Smash opened around five years ago, and it was a popular hangout for both portions of the age spectrum. The ones that were for a bit more class was the section called 'The Mansion'. It was a place where cigar smoke was rampant and craft beers along spirits were poured into glasses. Next to it, separated by said hallway and the Lord only knows how much soundproof padding, was "The Arena'. It was for the younger crowd that wanted nothing more then pulsating music, slamming into one another, and a variety of drinks with the most unusual of names.

It was outside the latter that Zelda and Samus awaited the other two of their night entourage. Samus just changed her jumpsuit to a hot pink with low heals while Zelda wore a purple and white knee high dress. Her heels tapped on the ground impatiently while she waited against her car door. She checked her watch every fifteen seconds. She looked over to Samus. "They are getting close to where I can officially call them late. What's keeping them?"

Samus shrugged to her old school friend. "You know those two better then I do. You were practically raised with them." Zelda nodded and fumbled around in her purse and produced a lighter. She reached into the dash of her car an pulled out an old cigarette case. She popped it open and produced a long, slender cigarette, no filter attached. She lit the tip of it and inhaled a long, controlled drag. She exhaled after she let the smoke settle with in her for a bit. Samus smelled the smoke and realized it wasn't tobacco in that fag. "That's a left handed cigarette."

Zelda rolled her eyes and took another drag of it. "Yes it is. Helps calm my nerves so I don't get so giddy and paranoid while I am amongst the crowd. Besides, regular smokes give me a headache and ruins my lungs with all those chemicals." She turned to Samus and offered her a hit.

"I would, but I am due for a drug test in a few days." Zelda nodded and finished her smoke with a few more drags. As she flicked it out the window, she saw some familiar head lights. "I think that is them."

Indeed it was, a small, very pink convertible drove up to them with some of the music that would be heard in the club. There was a driver and a passenger, and both Samus as well as Zelda knew that if it was a pink car the driver had to be her.

Peach Toadstool exited the driver side of the car. Her dress, which many sober people would call gaudy, was a psychedelic combination of a variety of colors, and yet she seemed to be able to make them all work. Her blond hair was mustard yellow, and lips were a color of what many would call deep whore red. Yet she was as bubbly and as hot of a wind bag when they first met her.

The one in the shotgun seat was their last guest, and all would agree the most modest of the four, was Elincia Crimea. A tall and slender woman, with a simple short orange dress and emerald hair, she looked more like an upper middle class rather then someone who was heired to just as much money as Zelda. Soft spoken and never one to bring up money, she could be considered the moral compass of the group. If they ever dared to listen to said morals.

Peach looked over to Zelda, "Sorry for keeping you waiting, but I needed to see what exactly I needed to wear for our long night."

Elincia gave a muted nod, causing Zelda to look back to her. "Come on 'cia, it's time you are going find yourself someone. Let's go!" They began to make their way to the entrance of the club, and there was a healthy line getting in there. Zelda pulled a card from her bodice and flashed it to the bouncer who allowed her in. Sometimes being the rich daughter gave realistic perks.

As they entered the double doors, the lights and the beat hit them first. The Arena was packed full, sweaty bodies slamming into each other and plenty of people around the bar. Thankfully they wouldn't be amongst them. They moved through the crowds to the far east corner, where two more muscled gorillas were there. When they saw the party of four, they nodded and parted ways for them, letting them ascend the stairs to the private pad Zelda rented out for the night.

The mezzanine was tall, almost to the roof in height, but they could over look the club at the dancers who were doing what many others would consider the signs of a seizure rather then dance moves. There was their own little bar which they could help to themselves through the course of their night. Four lounging couches were available for them if they wanted to relax or pass out on. Peach started the whole night by grabbing a bottle of silver swan vodka and four shot glasses. As each one sat on their couch, Peach poured a shot and passed them around. "Girlfreinds, a toast. To the night!"

"To the night!" The others responded and downed the contents of their glass. They slammed it down of the thick glass table and they began to catch up with each other and how they have been. The shots and other drinks were made and passed around to their respective owners. Zelda explained how she was perusing her business degree with ease and was making plenty of progress with her father in soon taking the reigns of the family empire when he passed into history while holding some spiced wine in her spare hand. Samus took a sip of a thick margarita and explained her escapades in the morgue and the wonderful work she had to deal with the variety of cases she had. Peach was the most long winded of the three who were speaking, talking as if she was reciting every action she did in the day. Now she was talking about her recent sexual adventure while gesturing with her spare hand and drinking her fruity cocktail in the other.

"And then he pulled out and climaxed all over my chest. The man was like a fire hose, he never ran out. Took me an hour to make sure it was all cleaned off!" The others laughed and she turned to Elincia. "So, Elincia, how goes the conquest of the male species? Elincia? Are you listening?"

Peach rose and walked over to Elincia who ideally looked out the balcony with a fresh martini contain three dark green olives. She was completely zoned out and was looking down. A common onlooker may have mistaken her for just looking out at the crowd, wondering who was down there. But Peach had almost a sixth sense of telling what people were looking at, and most of it was thanks to her looking out for up skirt shooters or the paparazzi.

Following her friend's gaze, she pinpointed it at the bar, third stool from them. There sat a man in his early twenties with shaggy dirty blond hair. He was nursing what appeared to be his second beer., and he was in a relaxed business wear more then the others. Light brown khakis and a green button up shirt. His elongated ears gave him away as a Hylian, something Peach knew Elincia had a fetish for. She smiled as he finished off his beer and left the stool to go to the dance floor. An idea passed through her mind and Peach knew this was good for Elincia.

"Hey, why don't we all," She said while pulling on Elincia's arm, forcing a laugh as she was pulled from her seat. "make our way down to the dance floor and party before the crowd gets too thin?"

"Looks like I have no choice." Elincia said out loud, and the other two made their way with them down the stairs and they soon got lost in the crowd. Peach made sure Elincia was next to her while they began to move with the beat of the music. Keeping her gaze locked on Elincia so she wouldn't try to escape and as well on the man she just saw, she moved slowly towards him.

When they were close enough together Peach made her move. When the beat dropped, Peach extended her arms and pushed Elincia into the man. She stumbled back and the man caught her before she hit the ground. Peach soon melted in to the crowd, satisfied with a favor done for her friend.

* * *

Elincia was caught off guard and tumbled backwards. Why did Peach shove her? She knew that everyone else didn't do such moves when the music changed, and Peach knew most of this 'clubbing music' by heart as well as the moves. So this wasn't an accident. She felt one of her legs trip over another and she closed her eyes. Awaiting the harsh impact to her skull that was coming up.

It never happened.

Time passed and then she felt someone's arms wrapped around her head and back that suspended her off the ground. She forced her eyes open and looked in to a pair of solid emerald eyes. She blinked as she could see her own hazel in the reflection. She saw his sharp features on the face, followed with the long dirty blond hair and... pointed ears. It took all of her will power not to be reduced to a slobbering moron.

The figure chuckled. It was a deep rumbling sound that reverberated in her as he helped her to stand. "Having a bit too much to drink?"

She shook her head furiously. "No, I have not." The figure gave her a look and she felt a giggle escape her lips. She was a bit tipsy, but she only had two martinis while the man in front of her had at least two beers. So they both may have been under the haze of alcohol. She thought of something and then put into action.

She moved through the body of sweaty dancers, dragging the newcomer by the hand at the while to the pad she and the other rented. She shot both of the bouncers a dirty look when they were about to react to the man she was dragging behind her. After the walked/stumbled up the steps she went to the bar and produced two cocktail glasses and filled them with ice cold water. Hopefully it would sober them up.

She passed a glass to the blond haired man, who took it with a nod of thanks. She drank hers as if she was in the desert, while the stranger downed his with a single gulp. Elincia looked over to him and played with one of her emerald strands of hair. "So... should we begin with names?"

The stranger, being the polite one offered his hand first to Elincia, which she took. "Link. And what is yours?"

"Elincia, maybe you have heard of me." She responded in her hand shake. Link looked as if he was trying to recollect any memories that may have reminded him of her, before he eventually shook his head.

"Sorry, I can't seem to recall any memories of the name. Could you remind me?" Elincia thought for a moment. It was peculiar that someone didn't know that she was the heir to a fortune sum of money, so maybe if she mentioned her last name, he would recall and act totally different. But this was one of those rare occasions where she had some form of being anonymous As such she could see weather the suitors she had were interesting in her personality or fortune.

She shook her head. "Oh, never mind. Few people have any ways. So what do you do for a living?"

Link struggled with his answer, either he was hesitant to tell her or it was complicated to say and he had to find more common words to express it with.

"I am a consultant for public offices." He replied. He rubbed his eyes and looked back at Elincia. "And what do you do?"

"I am currently going to law school to hopefully one day take the reigns of the family business." There was a half truth in that sentence and it was very evident. However; Link did not seem too inclined to pursue the question any further then that.

The two began to talk as if they were old friends, learning new things about each other. Elincia explained how she just had to get away from her spoiled little cousin and her other friends just to get some alone time with a few others. Link elaborated that he was spending one of those few nights to get some time with himself, but looked like he had his plans ruined when she showed up. How they laughed at that. They got deeper and deeper into the conversations about each other, learning more and more of each other as time went on.

That was, however, until a certain female Hylian came up the stairs. Zelda looked over to Elincia and then to Link, then back at the first one. "How did he get up here?" She was breathing heavily and sweating like a pig. It didn't take a detective to tell that she was not in the best of moods.

Elincia spoke. "I brought him up here. He is a very kind man, so-"

Zelda snorted. "What do you know about him, hm? From what I see, I just see a fucking leach that clings to someone to get close to fame and recognition while you gain nothing. Are you really this damn stupid?" Those words hit just as hard as a physical blow would have. Link shrugged and excused him self while Zelda watched him leave with a smirk on her lips.

Said smirk ended when she saw the death glare Elincia gave her. "Harkinain, what the hell has gotten into you? Are you drunk or am I seeing the real Harkinain?" Zelda hated being called her last name or even being associated with the thing, it sounded SO stupid. If it was anyone else, Zelda would have smacked the person speaking.

She was about to respond before Peach and Samus were coming back up to get their next round of drinks when they saw Elincia glare daggers at the brunette. Peach looked over to Zelda, then Elincia and then back to Zelda. "What just happened? Zelda shrugged and the four went up to get their next drink. The recent event blotted out of the back of their minds.

Except, of course, for the emerald haired beauty.


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, two chapters in one week. Let's see if I can keep this train rolling. As always, I hope you enjoy this chapter and remember to review.**

* * *

Zelda's head was spinning as if she just gotten off of a roller coaster with many corkscrews and loop-De-loops. The whole thing last night was nothing more then a blur, though what stood out the most was the clinking of shot glasses, dancing and sooooo many sweaty bodies slamming against her. She smiled as she rolled over. If that was all that she could remember of the night, then it wasn't a night wasted. God how she enjoyed being able to do things such as that

She then felt something wet get placed against her cheek, like wet sandpaper. She thought it was nothing then it happened again as a little laugh escaped her lips. The same thing happened again and again to the point she was forced to open her eyes to see what exactly it was.

When she did, her scream was muted by Peach's.

There, licking her face in indiscriminatingly was a large, fluffy Saint Bernard. Zelda didn't hate dogs, but was deathly afraid of the big ones. She looked over to Peach mid scream and saw that she was wiping her face from a Bloodhound that looked as if he was just as confused as the third person sat up with her hands covering her ears.

"SHUT UP!" Elincia yelled at the top of her voice, and the two others did so. Though they scooted away from the dogs and stood up on sofas to set the distance away from them. Elincia uncovered her ears and breathed a sigh of relief. "What the hell was that all about?" She asked as she brought the St. Bernard closer to scratch behind the ears.

Peach was the first to respond, as she shook hr finger at the confused bloodhound. "What- what the fuck is that thing doing outside of a cage?"

Elincia was about to respond when a woman in a maid suit with short blue hair. "If she wishes to listen without screaming her head off, the pets of the Crimean house do not have cages. They have their places to sleep for the night just as humans do."

Elincia looked over to the maid and gave a nod of thanks. "Thank you Lucia. I couldn't have explained it better. Would you be a dear and fix three of your special omelettes and some orange juice?"

Peach again curled her lips in discuss. "Eli, I'm a vegan! I can't eat that."

With out looking around as she walked away, Lucia replied. "My brother is just about to trim the grass, so help yourself to the clippings."

When the clicking of her boots were dying down to almost nothing, Zelda spoke to Elincia, who stretched out as if nothing had happened. "Your new maid has an attitude?"

Elincia shook her head as she dusted off her dress. "She is maid and body guard both. Though I really don't like having some stranger watch me where ever I go, Lucia made the exception to the rule. She is a good protector as well as an advisor to both me and my father."

Peach jumped over to another sofa, causing Elincia to hit her side twice. The bloodhound came over and sat at her side, allowing peach to step down to the floor. "To think I was kissing that thing... Where is the bathroom?" She said in a quivered voice.

"Down the hallway and third door on your left." Peach took off runing while Elincia smothered a laugh at the sight of Peach kissing old Rex. Zelda hesitantly came off of the sofa and followed peach, trying hard not to catch the Barnard's gaze. God she didn't want to be assumed as a plaything for the animal.

Elincia shook her head at her friends and ordered the animals to their room while she looked around her room. Apparently they all staggered back to her house with Lucia picking them up from the night so no DUIs would be given out. But her short orange dress would need to be cleaned, as there were plenty of spirit stains where someone tossed a drink on her or she spilled some.

She pulled the dress off and applied some more comfortable clothes. It was a good thing that they came to her house today. Mia, their fitness and nutritional expert, was coming for their daily workout later in the day. Now that Zelda was back, she would be included. And today would be pilates and water aerobics, two of her favorite workouts. Though she really loved fencing, as Mia seemed to come alive in the play. She always would tell of the story of her old crone of a neighbor telling her of a white cloaked man who would beat her and steal her heart. I guess it was different strokes to keep people motivated.

She produced a white tee-shirt and some long shorts that were also white. She walked out the room with a bit of ringing still in her ears, such was her hangover. But she lived in this house for all twenty-two years of her life, so she could easily recall where to go with her eyes close.

Eventually, she found the other two in the kitchen with Lucia working hard over the stove to get the last of her special omelets done. The three glasses of orange juice were placed on the counter and Elincia took her seat and began to drink the liquid to slate her thirst. She looked over to her two other companions and could sense that Zelda had a question. "Ask."

Zelda decided to play her dumb card. "I wasn't going to ask anything."

The green haired beauty rolled her eyes. "Please Harkinain. I don't need to be a psyker to tell that you have something you want to say to me. Say it or heaven help us things will be different."

Zelda hesitated but was shot a hard look by Elincia that loosened her tongue. "I know I came off a little hard last night when I saw you with that guy, but you could see where I was coming from?"

Peach's ears perked up at this. "What is this? Zely was looking out for Elincia on some guy?"

Elincia downed that last of her juice in an angry gulp. Slamming it down, she looked ver to Zelda, her features still very cross. "You came down hard. You came down hard? Zelda, that was an understatement at the very best and an insult at worst. You basically called him a date rapist without giving him a chance to speak. You are protective of us and that has been very beneficial, but it has also made many problems for both us as well as you."

Zelda nodded as Lucia grabbed three plates from the cupboard. "But you didn't know who he was. He could have been a lawyer, a con artist, or even a cop."

Peach laughed, "A cop, in The Arena? That is too funny."

"Alright, I have two regular omelets and one picky eater one." Lucia said as she piled three seemingly ordinary omelets onto white plates. She passed them silverware, and Elincia dug in, while Zelda and Peach looked down at the food and prodded at it for a while. Eventually, both of them jut off an end and slid it to their mouth.

A moment passed before they made a really weird face. Zelda took another bite and swallowed with a grimace. "Lucia, what is in the omelet?"

"Oh some dark chocolate, graham crackers, and a handful of mini-marshmallows. Salt and pepper as well." she recalled as if it was nothing

Peach looked as if she was going to throw up. "In an omelet?"

She nodded with a smile. "Elincia's favorite. What did she always call it... oh, a smorelette."

"I'll be right back." Peach said as she ran back to the bathroom.

"Me too." Zelda replied. Rolling her eyes at her whimsical friends, Elincia continued to eat her plate of smorelette. All the while Lucia began to fill her in on the gossip of the upper class.

"So you will be heading into town for the morning?" Lucia asked as she began to clean off the the dishes of the two girls by scraping it into the trash and placing them in the dishwasher.

Elincia nodded. "I'll be taking the subway and running errands in the city." She brought up the last of her smorelette to her mouth and made her way to the door for some time in the city.

* * *

It was a pillow to the face, and not the ringing of his alarm clock, that brought Link out of his sleep. He felt another presence tackle him on the back, causing him to let out a gasp of laughter. "Wake up, big brother! You're going to be late."

"Alright, alright Toony. If you will get off me I will." His little brother got off of him and Link sat up straight and stretched. Damn, he was going to be late. He looked down at his clothes and realized that he must have fallen asleep in his clothes from the night before and looked relatively decent for work. After all, how could he go wrong with with wearing a green tunic and tan trousers?

Toony was an affectionate name Link gave his twelve year old brother. He was his responsibility when Link assumed the role of guardian after a gruesome custody battle which almost Link lost to his drug-dependent godmother. He was always thankful that he went into criminal justice at the local community college and spent a semester on learning the workings of such trials.

His little brother was, like his name implied, an almost toon like mirror of him. Where Link had golden blond hair, Toony had mustard yellow. Link had sharp eyes, and Toony had large wide ones. They had their differences and similarities. But then again which siblings didn't?

Link grabbed his coat and ruffled Toony's hair and moved to the kitchen, where there was a large bowl of cereal waiting for him. It was Toony's favorite, Smashin' Fruit Orbs. Link took chemistry in high school and knew what exactly was inside the ingredients they made that stuff. For something that could glow in the dark, he wondered why his brother wasn't.

As he spooned the sugar laced fiber into his mouth, Toony decided to talk. "So how was she last night?" Link had a big spoon full in his mouth and was thankful he didn't throw it up in shock.

He looked back at his brother and shook his head. "I don't know who or what you are talking about."

Toony did one of those over exaggerating thinking poses. "Hmm, your coat smells like perfume, the expensive kind. I found this," He pulled out a long strand of dark green hair, "on your sleeve. And you were muttering some girl's name over and over before I pounced on you. So, who are you going to be brining home?"

Link also regretted teaching Toony the tricks of investigation. He would be a better cop given enough time and dedication. "Ok, all right. I confess. I was with someone for a good portion of the night. Her name was Elincia."

Toony nodded and poured himself a bowl of his sugary concoction and then added whole milk to it. "So why wasn't she here with you? Did she find out you were a pig or did your lack of a personality throw her for a loop?"

Slugging his little brother on the shoulder, Link shook his head. "Nah, the only thing that ruined the evening was that one of her friends came up to the pad they rented for the evening. The friend thought I was just another piece of scum and basically shooed me away. I didn't want to make a scene, so I just walked away."

Toony shook his head and shoveled down the cereal. "What a bully."

Link rolled his eyes and rinsed out his cereal bowl. "Eh, her loss. By the way Toony, you lunch is in the refrigerator. I need you to run errands for me while I am out for work."

Toony drank the sludge of sugar flavored milk and placed his bowl in the sink. "Ok, I have the list in my room. As well as the checks. By the way, what kind of a lunch did you pack me?"

Link grabbed his lunch pail and made the way to the door as he spoke. "Well, I took the last of the casserole for my lunch today. I fixed you a peanut butter and raspberry jelly sandwich with-"

"Again!? Blech, I swear if you make me another one of those I will cough up blood and die! Can't you make anything else for me?" Toony over-exaggerated by tossing himself on the sofa and looked as if he was going through a heart attack.

"You know, Toony, if you don't like it you are perfectly able to make your own lunch."

"...PB&J is fine. Thanks big brother." Ruffling Toony's head one last time, Link walked out the door attaching his sidearm and badge to his person. He would walk to his normal place where Marth would pick him up for carpooling since his car was out of commission with a broken transmission.

* * *

Marth sighed with some relief as he tied off his bathrobe. He had an hour to spare before he absolutely had to get his ass out the door. He knew he should have stopped at three, but he some how drank the entirety of the bottle and slept in later then he needed to. If the criminals weren't trying to kill him, his friends were driving him to drink himself to death.

He pulled off the facial mask he slept in, pealing the green plastic cling wrap like material off of his skin. Once he tossed that into the trash, he produced a long straight razor and a jar of Dead Sea Salt shaving gel. Flicking the razor open, he massaged the gel into his face, where he could feel some of the dead skin partials rubbed themselves from his face.

He ran the razor in a curve down his face, instead of directly down like most would do. He wiped the blade on the corner of the marble sink and continued to to the process. It the others found out about his morning rituals, they would probably mock him and then reinforce the homosexual rumors swimming around. "I am not gay, I am just more sophisticated then the norm." He whispered to himself as he continued to shave.

As he cleaned off the blade in running water, he flicked it shut and went back to his room to toss on his work clothes. Buttoned up dark blue shirt, dark gray dress pants and comfortable leather shoes. After making sure his hair was in an acceptable state, he grabbed his long coat and made it out side. He would grab some breakfast at his favorite coffee shop on his way to work. An egg white sandwich with green peppers, onions and ham washed down by a very bitter dark coffee.

He got into his car and turned the keys on the ignition. It looked as if it was going to rain today, at least in the morning. He rolled down the windows to get some fresh oxygen into the car and into the lungs. He cleared his mind of last night with his neighbor Caeda, who was waving to him in a skimpy see through nightgown as she put her mail out.. He shook his head and tried to focus on the road ahead of him.

That woman was in need of some professional help.

* * *

Ike's lungs burned as if they were on fire, sweat dripped from his brow onto the pavement beneath him. His breathing was heavy and labored. Yet he felt much better then what his body was telling his mind.

He had been up since five thirty in the morning, and running for the majority of that time. He looked down to his watch and saw that he had to be pulling in soon to get ready for the day ahead of him. He ran about eight miles in the span of an hour and a half, looping around the apartment complex after each mile. He had to make sure he wouldn't get fat and lazy, and a good morning jog would help him wake up.

As he reached the street that would lead him back to his apartment, he heard a roll of thunder akin to that of a bowling ball going down the lane. He picked up the pace, knowing that if the thunder was behind him, rain was also. The last thing he needed while he was investigating a murder case is to suffer a cold as well, which could contaminate crime scenes even if he could fully concentrate on them. He almost lost a case when he contaminated evidence which made him appear to be the one guilty.

He turned into the parking lot of the apartments and looked up to his room. He saw Aimee looking down at him, following him. It wasn't unusual, Ike thought in his head, she was usually up and about when he was finishing. But as he jogged up the stairs he noticed that her eyes were glued to him, specifically his mid section, as he often ran with out a shirt. While he wasn't a body builder or had muscles bigger then his head, he did have washboard abs and a fair amount on his arms.

As he slowed to a walk, her eyes were still transfixed on him. Ike felt a little uncomfortable with her practically drooling over him. She spoke once her eyes finally moved back up to his own. "So... did you have a good run?"

Ike noded and made his way to the door, but something pricked in the back of his mind that Aimee still had something to say to him. He unlocked the door and turned back around to see that she was suppressing something. She was fiddling with her hair and looked as if she was going to say something that made her sound crazy. She looked back to him and grunted. "Ike, I had a strange dream last night and-"

Ike chuckled. "Did it involve me for some reason?"

Despite herself, she let loose a single laugh. "Yes, yes it did. But it was weird and scary on how descriptive it was. You are probably think me crazy for it, but I feel I need to tell you it. "  
Ike considered the idea of just slamming the door in her face, but she seemed disturbed If it was the least he could do was to get it off her chest, so be it. "I got the time. I just got to shower and get dressed for work."

She moved closer to him, and looked up into his eyes. "Fire. There was only fire. This wasn't just some random match, this was an inferno. I was in a building, bound by thick cords and trapped under pieces of smoldering and half burned wood. The smoke it was so real, I woke up with my breath held. I could hear you screaming for me, your body singed and your clothing burned as you searched for me. I could hear some noise in the background, like metal on metal. A lighter maybe. But you carried me out as I felt I was about to die."

Ike nodded thoughtfully. Either the woman had a night terror, her lust for him took over the rational dreaming brain, or she may have seen something from the future. He had some strange dreams that held an inkling of truth in reality, but it was nothing to drastic like that. "You must have had a nightmare."

She shook her head. "I wish it was, but I have learned that if a dream is this real, I has to be a foretelling of the future. Please, even though you think this is ridiculous, take heed of it. I do not know when it will come to pass but it will be soon. I beg of you, do not discard it."

Her hands flew out and grabbed his shoulders. He had the strong urge to yank away, but resisted it. He looked down into her eyes and suppressed a disgruntled sigh. "Very well Aimee. I will not discard it but I assure you it was a bad dream."

After a minute, she walked almost lobotomized like to her apartment and Ike turned on the shower. He grabbed his clothes and sack lunch Oscar prepared for him last night. The man was far too kind for his own good. After the shower, he would make sure his Glock was cleaned, oiled and loaded. After that, he had to make it to the Precinct, where hopefully they would find out what the hell was inside that flash drive that Warrio swallowed.

But as experience had taught him before, hope is nothing more then the first step down the long road to disappointment.

* * *

Alexander watched as the last of the three amigos came in and took their seats. He checked his watch. They had fifteen minutes to spare and each of them looked ready to tackle the case. The computer crime department hadn't discovered what exactly was on the encrypted drive, but were making steady progress with it. It would only be a matter of time for them.

He took another sip of his coffee, wincing at the bitter taste as he began to sign off on official orders and double checking reports. He needed to pull Malon aside and tell her the exact ratio of good coffee to water. It seemed to very from either too weak to strong enough you could cut it with a combat knife. Like many things in life, coffee needed to be consistent. And not something like a monkey pissed in battery acid.

He overlooked the arrest papers of some low level drug dealers. He had a stack and Sheik kept on brining more and more of them in for his review. The arrests were borderline pandemic, as more and more were being arrested by vice and undercover officers. There were always plenty of dealers in any large city, but the wares they had on them were something else.

Cocaine and heroin arrests were shooting up, pun not intended. The cocaine on the street was high end quality, and a quarter of an ounce was eighty dollars. Heroin was one hundred and twenty for half an ounce. And new nicknames and varies were popping up. Borec Bow, Hylian Heroin, Crimean Crack, Laguz Dust and the like.

He realized his pen was running dry and needed to refill it. He reached down to his drawer and pulled on it. Much to his surprise it slid open with ease. Odd, he thought he locked it last night. He pulled it open and looked around to see if there was anything missing.

Much to his surprise, nothing was missing. But something was added.

A small envelope, generic white letter type, was at the front with his name typed on it. He shook it, and heard paper tussling around and no sound that would lead to arsenic or anthrax. Still he held is breath and opened the letter. It was a newspaper clipping. He pulled it out and, satisfied there was no dust on it, looked at it.

His heart stopped as he realized what it was. It was an article of him with the title "Hero Cop Saves Many From Burning Building." It was ten years ago when this was taken, and Alexander tried to repress the memories of that day. But what caught his attention was the note written at the bottom of the article. It sent a shiver through his spine.

_Remember, we ALL have our dirty little secrets. Don't we captain?_

"What are you looking at?" Sheik asked as she came in with more paper work.

"Nothing Sheik." Alexander said as he grabbed the ink and placed the article in his desk. "Nothing at all."


	5. Chapter 5

**Well, another chapter. I had some fun writing this one, and I couldn't have done it without someone's help. Thanks, Con. I owe you for this. Well, remember to review and enjoy.**

* * *

It almost felt as if her hair was on fire, Elincia thought as she strolled down the street. She had no hat (but hats didn't look well on her anyway) and the summer sun was mercilessly beating down on her. She wouldn't have to endure it much longer though, because the entrance to the metro was already near.  
She turned the corner and lifted her sunglasses as she passed beneath the high arches of the Botanical Gardens metro station. Dark shade and cool air immediately welcomed her, and she quickly wiped off some sweat from her temples.

Although Elincia loved spending time in the sun, the heat sure had its downsides. She threw an empty water bottle (already the fifth today) into a random bin she passed by and felt a little bad about having bought so many plastic bottles today.

She wasn't doing nature any good, but at least she was using the metro instead of taking a cab or the limo, both of which emitted so much pollutants that she dreaded even thinking about it. The city however had recently picked up the trend of going green and provided bicycles for the citizens who had a public transport season ticket, a project her family had actively supported. Furthermore, an annual 'Sunday Without Cars' had been introduced last year. Of course police cars, ambulances and such were always permitted, but still the city was huge and the project was not without faults. Elincia remembered the chaos during that precise september sunday last year very well.

She rummaged in her vintage bag for her season ticket and had to quickly step aside to let hundreds of people pass. A metro must have just arrived. Botanical Gardens was one of the bigger stations in the city, not in its heart but still in the centre, surrounded by lush greenery, a park and a small zoo. Nearby were some schools and some skyscrapers (not so many as downtown, of course), which explained the huge amount of children and businessmen exiting here.

Some screaming kids accidentally bumped into her, an old lady pulled on her dress and someone stepped on her foot. The public transports sure were no luxury, but they were green and the only way to get around the city and not get stuck in a traffic jam and therefore be more or less on time.

Elincia huffed in amusement at the memory of Zelda in the metro. Her friend now lived in a different state, but each time she came back home, the limo was basically her only means of transportation. When Elincia had introduced her to the metro the one time Zelda's limo had broken down, her friend had truly been a sight to behold. Obviously she hadn't been the only one in sky high heels, with a handbag as expensive as a car, but she'd been the only one whose emotions had been all over the place. Zelda's usual confidence had been nonexistent, and she'd awkwardly complained about the public transports being so… Well, public. It had been adventure of some sorts.

There were less people now, so Elincia made her way through the crowd to the gates to validate her ticket and hastily passed through the glass door that slid open as her ticket got accepted. Unfortunately, in this part of town, the stations were quite stinky, even more so downtown. She slightly wrinkled her nose while passing some queer looking substance on the ground and made her way down the stairs to metro line number two.

Countless people were standing on the platform as she arrived. She had a few minutes before her metro would arrive, so Elincia began walking towards the platform's end, where it would be more convenient for her to get in.

Faint music came from somewhere. Elincia first assumed at first that someone was loudly listening to some music through their headphones, but was proven wrong when passing a man leaning against the wall. He was of more or less her age, had a funny looking, multicoloured haircut, several piercings in his nose and lips and a polished, beautiful violin in his hand. A street musician.

She stopped to listen to him playing, fascinated by the soft tunes and effortless way the man's hand operated the bow. Beautiful, she thought. The man was so immersed in his track that his eyes were closed, but once they flew open for a second and spotted Elincia, he flashed her a heart-warming smile.  
The violin case between them was almost empty, only a few coins lay in there, but Elincia would have given him money even if it were jam-packed. She grabbed her bag and blindly searched around for her purse, threw a fair amount of coins and bills into violin case on the ground. A cold breeze and the loud screech of braking wheels signalled the arrival of a metro behind her, but Elincia did not need to turn around to know it wasn't hers— it would come in two minutes.

Upon seeing the silver coins landing in the case, the man reddened and took a bow, bringing a smile to Elincia's face. "My thanks, milady", he said. She hastily stuffed the purse in her bag and took a step aside to continue walking, but somebody ran into her. A beep signal announced that the doors were closing and people were jostling to still jump into the wagon, regardless of anyone around them.  
Children were shouting and adults were cursing, and the man was still carelessly playing his violin.

"Miss", she heard someone shout, and she paid it no mind because there were so many people, but the kid wouldn't stop shouting it, so she finally turned around, not believing it could be her who was meant.  
But as Elincia looked down, a little kid was standing in front of her, huffing and puffing, holding an item in his hands. Her purse, she realised, baffled.

"Miss", the boy said, catching his breath, "your purse."  
"I… Thank you", she hesitantly answered and reached for the ugly blue thing the kid was holding out to her.

"It fell out of your bag", he explained. "I was afraid someone might take it and keep it, so I picked it up for you." He ruffled his shaggy blond hair, revealing a pair of pointed ears beneath it. Hylian. A handsome young man he'd be when he'd grow up. The boy turned around and Elincia watched his blue eyes dart around. "I shouted to get your attention, but you didn't hear me, I had to fight my way through to you", he laughed.

He turned back to her and looked directly into her eyes, and Elincia had a sense of déjà vu. "You did that for me? Thank you so much!"

"Yeah, of course! You never know who else might find it, right?" True. It wouldn't have been the end of the world, but very, very aggravating to lose the wallet, especially today. Mia preferred to be paid in cash, so Elincia was carrying around quite an amount of money today.

"Hey, listen, little fella, I feel like I have to thank you for helping me out." She opened the wallet and was just about to fish out a bill out of it to hand it to the kid, but he fervently shook his head.

"No, don't. Anyone would've done the same, it's nothing. It was the only right thing to do."

"Well, no, the city's big and the people— hey, are you alright?"

The boy's head flew back to her. He'd been looking around, looking a little uneasy, as far as Elincia could tell. Now that she thought about it, he seemed to be quite young, maybe even a little too young to be using the metro alone. "Ah, I— I kind of got separated from my group there", he slowly admitted.

"You missed your train?"

"Kind of… Not really?… I mean, I kind of jumped out of it. You know, when I, uh, when I saw your purse." Now he seemed to be a little embarrassed, even. The boy awkwardly scratched the back of his head, and Elincia's eyes widened.

Now she felt guilty for the boy. "Were you heading home?"

He nodded. "I was. But now the metro's gone, and I don't really know which one to

Kokiri Park wasn't exactly where she was headed, but then again, it wasn't like it was a complete detour. "You know what", Elincia decided, "I'll accompany you home. It's the least I can do."

"What? No, you don't have to do that", the boy said and looked quite confused, embarrassed but relieved all at once. "I can find my way home."

Behind them, a loud beeping sound resounded, and Elincia shrugged and grinned. "Well, to bad, because I just missed my train."

The boy jumped and turned around, only to see the departing metro's back-lights. Then he looked back to her and shyly began adjusting his backpack. "Yeah, okay, if you insist. You can tag along."

Elincia chuckled. "I will. By the way, what's your name?"

"You can call me Toony."

"Tony?"

"Toony, with two O's", the boy repeated. What an odd name.

"I'm Elincia. With one— oh, never mind. Nice to meet you." She couldn't really think of a clever response. Toony had a weird look on his face as he observed her, and Elincia felt a little self-conscious under his gaze. "Is everything alright? Do I have something on my face?", she asked him, nervously laughing.

He shook his head. "No, everything's fine. That's quite an unusual name you have. I feel like I've heard it before… But I can't remember where."

Elincia reddened. Although the amount of paparazzi chasing her was not comparable to those who hunted Peach or even Zelda, her own face and name sometimes could be found in the tabloids. She hated it. Hated the attention, hated the pictures and the lack of privacy. She did her best to keep a low profile, and it actually worked; paparazzi didn't expect her to take the metro or engage in normal, casual people day-to-day activities.

She shrugged again. "I guess I just have one of those faces people see everywhere. What about your name? Toony sounds unusual as well." She wanted to deflect his attention.

"Oh, it's not a real name, more of an inside joke, really. My brother always said I looked like a younger cartoon version of him and constantly called me Toony. It kinda just stuck." He sheepishly scratched the back of his head again, ruffling his sand coloured hair, and the gesture reminded Elincia of something… Someone.

Before she could say anything though, she had to spit out the hair the wind from the arriving metro had blown into her face. Damn, she must've spilled her Mojito on it last night because it tasted like alcohol.

Once back home, she would have to wash it.

They stepped inside; fortunately, the wagon was relatively empty and they managed to find two empty seats facing each other. Any attempts at conversation were unsuccessful, since more people got in and placed themselves in between them. During the following ten minutes, all Elincia could really do was awkwardly bend to the sides and check if the boy was still there.

You never knew.

* * *

"Marth, will you pull your nose out of that diary and focus back on the present?" Link asked as he looked up from his laptop to the bluenett who was buried in that book. He never read any of it out loud, but Link could tell he was enthralled in it. Marth nodded and put a book mark in and looked back to Link, who passed him a folder full of names. "These are the names of people who were at Lyn's concerts. Run them through to see if there are any pings that we should visit."

Marth grumbled something about the reason they have assistants and interns for a reason. Link ignored him and continued to work on his file. No one was really sticking out, there were a few with a criminal record, but they only had misdemeanors. Ike was looking over financial again, hoping to see any connection of twenty thousand dollars in Warrio's account. He was also looking online to see if there was any work that would mark Lyn or Warrio for death.

"Until we find out what the hell is on that flash drive, it looks like we will be going after dead end after dead end. Financially, I can't find any thing that would link the two together." Ike did some more typing on the computer and shook his head. "And their social media presence is minute at best."

Link grunted and swallowed more Columbian bean juice. "Computers say that flash drive is corrupted, and breaking it is going to be difficult. They have found some partial docs on it, but they are doing one more sweep before they hand over what they find on it."

"Swell, I just love cases in which we cant seem to find even our own ass with both of our hands." Marth said deadpan. The others grumbled their retort under their breath. While certainly not the pessimistic member of the group, Marth's demeanor when the going got tough was somewhat agitating to say the least. It was yet another reason why some wanted to give him a helping push off a tall flight of stairs on more than one occasion.

The telephone rang, and Link picked it up. "Link... Yes this is him...I am sorry I can't talk about- say that last part again?" He gestured for the others to be quite while he listened on the other end. "Yes you can leave a tip. No one else is on this line." He began to scratch some things down on a pad of paper. "So why delay that a day? How can I be certain this isn't a prank call? Okay... you can confirm a connection? Give me some thing I would need to know to see if you are tell... really? Alright... very well."

He hung up the phone and looked over to the other two detectives. Tearing off a piece of paper, he looked at them and then back to his comrades. "Alright. I just got a tip from an 'anonymous' person who says he has information on the case. Trouble is that he can't immediately speak to us, and the earliest he can is tomorrow at a location that is to be determined."

"Why does this has the distinct oder of bullshit?" Ike asked.

Link nodded. "I asked a similar question, trying to give me some piece of information that would give some indication on what exactly would be the fruitful. He gave me a piece of information, saying that I should look at Lyn's journal, as there should be some explanation near the middle."

Marth pulled open the journal and flipped through it as if he knew which page Link was referring to. "The journal is pretty much straight forward, but then there was this one one part that was different then the rest. All of the other entries were straightforward, but this was cryptic."

Finding his page, he opened it and read it aloud. "I was cleaning yesterday when I came across those documents. I wonder why I still hold on to them after all this time. She is dead and cannot be saved. Her last wish was as mysterious as she was. Will anyone care? Will anyone listen? There is nothing on these documents that will see the ink in the light. I know these devils are everywhere, they are many and they are powerful. For the sake of my child and my love, I dare not acknowledge such parchment. The reason they would be shown to light is probably as burned to cinders as she is. What happened all those years ago is not worth the risk they present today."

Marth closed the journal and looked just as confused as the rest were. After a while, Link spoke. "Granted, that is all in metaphor. I have yet to see a devil in a business suit, unless you count some of the lawyers I had to deal with." A quick burst of nasal air escaped Ike and Link continued. "From what I am reading, someone in her friend circle gave her some documents that were scandalous to one party or another."

Ike nodded in agreement. "Though she is too vague. If it was a bit more specific, maybe we could figure out who she was talking about. But as it stands right now, it is nothing more then conjecture. Though it does give us some incentive to go meet whoever this person is. How did the person sound on the phone?"

Link made a few conflicting faces. "It sounded masculine, but was constantly changing as if to hide the identity of the person speaking. Peculiar."

Ike felt a tap on his shoulder and looked around to see a folder extended to him. He took it with a nod of thanks and opened it up. "Well, it looks like we will have to worry about that later. We just got some of the partially corrupted documents from the flash drive and I think they have just given us a new lead."

He passed them around so Link and Marth could look at them. "They are financial reports, rather in depth ones I must say so. Transactions are well documented and their reasons are clear." Link was beginning to say while his eyes looked back to the top. He saw one, no two... three triangles with a musical note at the beginning. "Harkinain Music Records? What is an agent doing with financial records?"

Marth shook his head. "Look at these, these are much more personal. Investment mainly, but income is coming in at a faster rate then traditional investments. Stocks pay out on a quarterly basis, not every two weeks. I don't have a title for this one, but there is serious coin in this one. One week it's fifty grand, and then the next it is almost a hundred thousand."

Ike looked over his document, noting all of the numbers and transaction rates. "It looks like I have something of a tax return. Maybe this one is in the public eye and we can see who exactly it belongs to. I would have to wager this is one of the many influential families we have in the city. No one can get this large of a sum. It's six digits in length."

Link raised up his hands for the others to pause for a moment. "Listen, before we dive head first into this, we need to figure out what exactly we are going to say. Mr. Harkinain said the music company could help us in any way, so I shouldn't have too much trouble getting those records. However, this is more personal and when questions get more personal, lawyers from the nine levels of hell come after us. What are we going to say to convince them to hand over such things, or at the very least attempt such things?"

Pausing for a moment, Marth thought. "Well, it would appear that Warrio was over his head in corporate espionage as we have found several compromising documents on his person. As such, we need to see if these records match up with their own."

"And thankfully it's over the telephone," Ike said as he began to look up the tax returns. "that way they don't know we are just shooting in the dark."

* * *

Zelda sighed as she exited her room, dressed in her athletic workout shirt and shorts. She didn't necessarily think she was in that need of a work out, but it was going to please Elincia if she came along. It was the least she could do for acting like she did last night, even if she was in the right to say such things.

She had almost forgotten how beautiful the mansion she lived in was. While there were points where it was almost gaudy in it's appearance, it didn't bother her that much. Sometimes she would just spend her day walking around, admiring everything that was available to her.

Unlike many families with her kind of wealth, hardly any of it was inherited. Her father made his fortune through many profitable ventures, ranging from the music industry to privatizing some of the public services for the city. Add that to the stock market and successful lawsuits that his music industry produced against pirating, and well there was plenty of fortune to be found.

She walked down to the ground level of her house and looked at her watch. She had an hour or so before she needed to get back to Elincia's for the work out. So she had some time to kill before then. She could be studying her languages for her minor in linguistics, or she could annoy her cousin. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Small wonder which choice she wanted to do.

She knew Lucas, who like her had come back from the holidays, would probably be in the living room trying to study on his work. While both of them were very studious, Lucas practically lived for the studying. Not even thirteen and he was studying for college entrance exams. Something he never ceased in reminding her about. "While you were out recording an album that would only sell because of your name, I started advance chemistry." Just one of the many lines he used to note the differences in between them.

As she began to walk off to meet her cousin, she heard a flurry of Shakespearian English coming from behind a closed door. "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interned with their bones! I say, constable, what charge to you bring out against this good house?"

Her train of thought was instantly derailed when she heard his voice and knew that this was going to be a show. She opened the door to their live-in lawyer's room and watched as Bastian was talking to someone on the phone. An old friend of her father and Elincia's, Bastian was a lawyer second to none. Skilled in the art of the law, he was only matched by the zeal he applied himself with it. Majoring in law, he minored in drama and theater. And often to entrench his opposition, he would use all of his skills in both fields. "You speak unskillfully: or, if your knowledge be more, it is much darkened in your malice. Such charge is brought against this castle with not a claim of evidence. You will not receive such personal matters. Of the industry, I here by grant you thee. But as of this house, you will receive no scrap of papyrus or droplet of ink. Cometh with warrant if thou stubborn enough."

There was a pause while Bastian listened to the phone. "I must protest, this is not an investigation, this is harassment. And slander, I hav- you may do that but I shall not give a single inch to you or whoever you belong to."

He slammed the phone down on the receiver and began to put away papers back into portfolios or folders. He looked up and saw Zelda with a merry smile on her lips. "Reporters or is it the IRS again?"

Bastian chuckled. "No, milady. No such devils cometh to throw themselves on our walls. A local investigator belonging to the city requested our accounting. 'Tis appears that someone in the industry has engaged as a scoundrel for hire and stolen several. Mr. Harkinain promised to give the business' over to them, but I will not budge on the personal."

Zelda nodded. She was going to major in law, and part of it was to take on as an understudy for a lawyer. Of course, Bastian offered his services which sh gladly took. Granted it wouldn't start for a few more months, she was looking forward to learning the trade.

She left Bastian to continue his work as the phone ran again. Zelda decided to give Lucas some time off from her heckling and let her mind wander to the upcoming event her family would be hosting for their friends. It was a midsummer's gala, and it was divided into two parts. One for the parents and the old breed, while Zelda would have complete control over her own while the parents were away at it.

She had already decided on the theme, a masquerade. Her mind was already racing as for what to do. There were so many things to be done. Invitations had to be sent out, drinks had to be ordered, food had to be lines up, and of course there had to be the special amenities she always got her hand on.

She walked to the secluded porch and, satisfied that it was empty, opened up her cigarette case. She pulled free another left-handed cigarette. Oh how her parents would throw a fit if they caught her with this. She put in her mouth and reached for her lighter. Years of sheltering her from the drug only made the forbidden fruit taste far sweeter. She wasn't a stoner by any means, but she did enjoy a smoke of the sweet leaf every once in a while. After lighting up the end of the bud filled joint, she took a deep inhale of the smoke and exhaled without a care in the world. Her wealth allowed her to buy streight from the local supply and managed to be sure that it wasn't cut with any other leafy green things.

She reminded her self that she should control her self, after all, she would have far more tonight. Her two good friends, Micaiah and Ilyana, would rendezvous with her at Ilyana's household and would enjoy some good hash with with soothing music and incense. And Ilyana would have at least two large family sized tortilla chips bags for her appetite. Ilyana always had the munchies no matter how much she ate. She was far worse after she had a few joints to smoke.

"Such trivialities." She whispered to herself and took another long hit while she let her mind carry her away to places unknown

* * *

.

"Ass." Link said after he slammed the phone. "We don't have enough evidence to get issued a warrant for the financial of the Harkinain family. We do have the financials for Music Industry and they should be here in a few hours."

Marth shook his head. "I think the lawyer I talked to really has a hard-on for the dramatic flair he attacked me with. He insulted me in more ways then I thought possible and I could just hear his ego fapping in the background."

Ike shook his head. "I wouldn't know what that sounds like." Marth shot daggers at him and Ike continued. "And it would appear that the tax returns are private but I am sticking to the preconceived notions of who they belong to."

Link nodded and returned to his preheated casserole. "Ok, let's look at the evidence with out the names. What does it look like ?"

Marth looked at the ones he had on hand. "Besides the fact that some of them are making more then what I do in six months, there are some peculiarities. For examples, some of the things labeled as expenses are paid for in cash. The numbers vary, but they are roughly the same. And almost the same amount of money comes in a few days before hand, also labeled as cash."

"That alone is something. Perhaps laundering drug money is an option." Ike stated as he looked back to the others.

Marth continued, "And on the day before Lyn and Warrio was murdered, there is a partial number 7 and 5 before it goes fuzzy. It's labeled as security."

"Suspicious. But these are only partial files, and those look personal. So we don't know who they belong to, or if that is just a coincidence. And with out any evidence, it will be mighty hard to convince a judge to give us a warrant to check it out." Link said in between mouth fulls. He wiped his face off with a napkin and looked at the clock. It was just barely in the afternoon and they had a long time ahead of them.

The other two had begun to take their lunches out, noticing that the short thunderstorm was over and the sun returned to it's beating heat. Alexander walked over to them, a large carton of French fries in hand. After downing a few, he looked to the guys. "So I heard through the grape vine that you uncovered some things about the Harkinian family?" The three, mouths full, nodded in agreement. "It would be far easier to storm the gates of hell then to stand against such foes. Tell me, anything cryptic you have discovered?"

Marth opened the journal to the page he read from earlier and let the Captain have a look at it. The Captain slowly read across the lines. Link noticed something as Alexander's face changed for an instant. But before he could vocalize the change, Alex's face returned to normal. "Very unusual indeed. Perhaps it is worth another look at the house to find these documents."

The Captain turned around and once he was out of ear shot, Link spoke. "Did you see the captain's reaction?" The other two nodded. Link looked back to the journal entry and then resumed eating. The question that was gnawing at the back of his head. What did the captain know about that entry that he wasn't sharing?

* * *

The metro was fast, and Elincia had given an older woman her seat two stops before they would arrive. Once the metro's displays blinked and showed the name of the next stop, Kokiri Park, and a mechanical voice announced the station as well, Elincia fought her way through an overweight couple and gave Toony the sign to jump up and follow her.

A lot of people got out here, and Elincia had to take the small boy's hand not to lose him amongst the people. While the Kokiri Park station was rather renovated and colorful, the neighbourhood itself was rather blank. Elincia had only really driven through it and had not been impressed, though there was a really nice park in the area, the neighbourhood's namesake.

Everyone was waiting in front of the elevator, and there was quite some shoving and pushing in front of the escalators, so they chose to climb up the stairs. Elincia had to stop and catch her breath when they arrived upstairs, much to her annoyance, since the kid just sighed once and didn't seem to be exhausted at all. She would have to ask Mia to intensify their workout.

She straightened herself and forced a smile on her face, energetically taking the lead as they walked out of the station into the heat of the sun. "So", she asked the boy. "Where do we go now?"

"This way", he said and pointed to the left. He seemed to see that she was a little out of breath and slowed down a little to match her pace. "Listen, I think I remembered where I know you from."  
Elincia bit her lip. What now? Would he ask her for a picture? It wasn't like she was a real celebrity, though. Would he ask her about her parents, how much she was worth? Would he ask her why the heck she used the metro?

"So this will sound weird, but I think you met my brother yesterday while out partying."

"Link?", she answered quick like a shot. She didn't know why, but she was unsurprised, yet flabbergasted at the same time.

Toony grinned. "Then I was right! Yeah, I dare say he's quite smitten with you. I kinda had to force some information out of him", the boy told her as they walked down the street. They neighbourhood wasn't that bad, actually. True, the buildings were a little run-down, but there was some kind of unique charm to them, with their red bricks and white window frames and flowers on the balconies. "I guess you two really hit it off until some chick came and scared him away by being a bitch."

Well, the kid sure wasn't shy. "She's not a bitch, she just acts like one", Elincia admitted. "But to say it was irksome would be an understatement. I'm so sorry about what happened, I… I should've followed him." She shook her head. "But I guess I was too embarrassed."

"We're here", Toony said and stopped in front of a building. Its bricks were of a deep green, and the door and blinds painted in a lovely cream, giving the building a very homely and inviting atmosphere. Elincia was ripped out of her thoughts as the boy spun back around to her. "So, listen, I bet he'd like to see you again."

She felt her face redden, and it wasn't because of the hot sun, that she was sure of. "I'd like that as well. I'll write down my number so you can give it to him, if that's alright."

"Yeah, sure! Wait, I have some paper and a pen with me." Elincia observed the boy as he hastily ripped the backpack from his back and began fumbling around in it before she could even say anything. He seemed a little too excited about the whole situation. "There you go", he said, and she took the small notebook he held out to her. Then he went back to searching a pen in the depths of his bag.

"There's no need for a pen, thank you." Elincia calmly reached into her handbag and fished out a small, oval object. She opened it with her teeth and began artfully writing down her number on the paper, careful not to smear the characters.

"No, I already—" Whatever Toony had wanted to say got stuck in his throat. He hesitantly reached for the notebook Elincia presented to him and stared at it for a moment, completely fascinated by the number written in blood-red lipstick.

It was probably the most scandalous thing he'd ever seen in his young life, Elincia thought.

"Tell Link I'll be expecting his call", she warbled and ruffled Toony's hair. Then she turned around and walked away, just in time to hide the crazed, enormous grin on her face.


	6. Chapter 6

**Well, sorry about the wait on this chapter. School started up and I was really busy. Hope you enjoy.**

"Marth, will you do me a favor?" Link asked as he placed the next box of financial recordings next to the small pile that was continuing to grow in number.

"What?" Marth replied as he continued to read his own small compendium of folders.

"When I ask for anything relating to recordings, remind me to ask for a set amount of time to look at." Link requested. He should have been more careful for what he would wish for. When he asked for financial to the Harkinian Music Records, he didn't say from what date or time.

"Gladly." He swore back to his compatriot and looked over his own pile of folders. "Goddamn it, Link. Sometimes you forget the most trivial thing and it becomes a pain for the rest of us." Link shot daggers at Marth while he helped Ike sort through his own pile. "I don't know weather this is helping us or insulting us."

"An unhealthy combination of the two I think." Ike said as he finished organizing the piles for tomorrow. "I think this is to make it seem as if they were helpful, and then just give us a big back hand with all of this."

"Amen to that." Link said as he looked at the small pile of boxes, which numbered probably about seven. Gripping the one at the bottom, he hauled three of them off to a small locker with two combination locks on them. Thankfully the inventory didn't press union rules on them for requisitioning this piece.

He opened both metal doors and slid the boxes in, while Marth and Ike did the same. Once they were all in, Ike shut it and applied the two locks. One built in and other padlock to add a final layer of security. Once that was closed up, they grabbed their rain coats and looked out towards the rain. Shivering, they gathered around their desks and looked to each other. Ike was the first to speak. "Well, first things first. We have to meet that contact that was so adamant to see us tomorrow. After that, we have to plan our next move."

Link nodded and pulled the green stocking hat his great uncle made for him snuggly around his head. "Alright. So, see you guys tomorrow then? Saturday is coming up, so who will be the one hosting the card game this time around?"

Marth raised his hand. "I'll take over that this time. Rules as usual, just a hundred dollars or so. Now if you will excuse me gentlemen, I have to get home."

Marth left and then Link soon after. Ike stayed around to finish tidying up his desk. As he did, he glanced up to see Sheik doing the same to the Captian's desk. He watched her as she swept off the desk, shaking her head. She stopped as she saw an envelope and looked at it. Ike was perplexed as she looked around with a stealthy glare, but saw Ike looking at her. She placed it in Alexander's desk and continued to sweep it off. She closed the door and walked off to where wherever she was going to.

Ike thought about it for a moment before shrugging and grabbing his own stuff to take home as he made his way to the door.  
For once, he didn't have anything planned for the night. It would be good just to get some shut eye after a long day at work. Right now, that seemed like the ultimate luxury.

_Alexander's Journal_

_August 12th, 2014_

_Time: 9:37 pm_

_Rough day at work. Received a newspaper clipping about the fire. Genuinely disturbed about the situation. If she finds out, the facade I have built will crumble like poorly placed cement. Such a day would have normally driven me to reacquaint myself with the bottle. _

_Not tonight. No, not tonight. _

_Tonight I have business. _

_There is a man I know. He calls himself Lord of Skies. An apt title, I must admit. His acrobatics belies the bulk of the man. An old friend, with old debts to collect. I risk much visiting him, he is wanted for questioning on three counts; murder-one. His given name is Tibarn._

_He is an old comrade of mine. Hell, we were roommates at the academy together. Found jobs within the force of the city, and both of us had promising careers. While I went into Vice, he was assigned as Special Weapons And Tactics squad leader. Snake, the current occupant of that title, called Tibarn one of the old breed._

_Old. Fuck, we were barely into our thirties._

_But things were not smooth for him. The stress and high casually rates during the riots of '08 took their toll on him. I think what made him snap was the brief privatization of the security of the police when things were really getting out of hand. His strict moral compass, something I can only hope of having a fragment of, made him never to compromise._

_I remember him coming to my house the night he snapped. He was tripping, but Tibarn was never one to drink. He looked as if he was distressed and had his 1911 out, constantly loading and unloading it. He didn't know what to do. He was to protect and uphold the law, not to be the lapdog of some business. I couldn't do much. All I could was just sit and listen while he made his decision._

_Can't say I would have made the same, but I condone what he did._

_The next morning, the three city councilors that proposed to privatize the public security were found dead. Tibarn's gun matching the bullets used to kill each one of them, but couldn't be confirmed. Such was the sloppy work of private security. He was questioned and couldn't be linked with the crime, no matter how much they tried. After that he vanished, claims of evidence linking the crime to him. Doubtful, Tibarn was clean and surgical. He didn't leave any evidence behind. _

_I guess that was one of the reasons why privatization of the police force was fallen out of popularity. No elected official wanted to be elected only to end on a slab. _

_Yet, I know where to find him. I will be offered French love, Swedish love, and Belgian love to where I am headed. But I will not be able to get American love. American love is like coke they made in green glass bottles. Like Tibarn, they aren't suppose to exist anymore._

_I can only hope he listens to me. We both know what is at stake if this falls down. If that match wasn't lit... or if she never survived none of this would have happened._

Alexander put down the pen and put his journal back into his coat as he exited the subway. The usually busy Botanical Gardens was just about empty. He was probably the only one there, save a musician who looked as if he was going to turn in tonight. Alexander tipped his hat to the magician and walked out of the metro. He was met with the hard rain and pulled his overcoat in closer around him. The wet end of summer was typical, but he hated it. Sometimes he swore he would grow moss in between his toes if the damned thing kept up.

Botanical Gardens was nearby where he wanted. A few good blocks of walking never hurt him, but he would be walking through the city's own version of Bourbon Street. He had done it a few times before, but it was still a bit unnerving at all of the vices that surrounded him.

As he walked down the blocks, it was the light more then anything else that caught his attention. Cherry Street, an apt name for the red light district of town. Whores, strippers, pornography, and drugs were available for your picking if you had the money and the connections. Gangbangers were peddling everything, and the drunks were being thrown out of the bars. It took all of his willpower to keep from sneering at the sights.

He had his gun on him, as well as his badge. Both of which could kill him easily if he showed them. Reaching into his pocket and producing the last of his cigarettes, he lit it under the brim of his hat. Once he got the cherry ember on the tip, he took a deep drag and walked forward. He saw the place he wanted to be ahead of him. Getting in was going to be the challenge.

_The One Winged Heron_ was one of the more conventional-if there even was such a term- bars in the red light district. It was also one of the more restrictive. There have been plenty of lawsuits for unnecessary violence on behalf of the bouncers, and the plaintiffs somehow managed to recant their testimony after a few days into the trial.

There were two gorillas standing out front this time. Both of them probably skinheads. A quick sizing up told Alex they had at least a knife apiece, in addition to the not so discrete brass knuckles. Violence was an option, but it was very unwise. Besides, on Cherry Street, the past had one hell of a long reach to your neck.

Taking another drag of the smoke, Alex passed by the door and watched as their eyes followed him. The local whores began to make their propositions, some of them offering group specials. All the years on the force and he never knew why they shut this place down. Protection racket perhaps on a coucil wide level maybe.

As he reached an alleyway he stepped inside to gather his thoughts. A distraction was needed, but he didn't know what would be one.

Sure enough, one fell right into his lap.

The was the sound of a woman screaming down the alleyway a bit but was drowned out by the sound around them. A man dragged her, knife placed firmly against her neck. Alex moved down as the conversation drifted to his ears. "You- you can't do this. We had a deal-"

"Shut your mouth you filthy whore. Or I will find something to shut it with." Her breaths became shorter and faster and the man was about to speak again but heard Alexander's food splash into a puddle. "What the fuck are you looking at?"

"Let the woman go. Pay her and let her go. There is no need for you to get harmed."

The guy slammed the woman against the building, knocking the wind out of her and moved towards Alexander with knife in hand. "That's a smart mouth. People cut those smart tongues out like this." He thrusted the knife forward. Alexander side stepped and wrapped one arm around the knife wielder's arm. A grunt of surprise escaped his lips as Alexander held the man's arm. Struggling for an instant, the man realized he was in a dead man's lock.

Alexander looked over to the girl, and looked her over. She was young, very young. "How old are you?" He asked.

"As young as you want me." She replied. Alexander gave her one of those stern looks that caused many to second guess what they said. "Sixteen." She said as she twirled a strand of hair.

Alexander looked back to the man clutched in his hands. He gazed down and saw a member card, to the bar he needed to be. He released one of his hands and plucked it off the belt. "Sex with a minor. You know in the penal system, child molesters have a life span a kin to that of a mayfly. You want to see if you can beat the record?"

"I can't go to prison. I have contacts!" The man lashed out with his knife again, cutting down the arm of Alexander's right. Grunting by surprise, Alexander instinctively let go and dodged the next three slashes. His training coming back, Alexander shot out his arm and drove his middle and index finger down the gap between the two ribcage. The surprise took the man off guard and Alexander gripped the man's arm again. Though blood trickled slowly down his arm, he fought back the pain and glared menacingly into the man's eyes.

"Wrong move." Twisting it back, the arm snapped out of socket with a hideous sound. The figure was squirming for a minute, but Alexander wasn't through yet. He took one past puff from his cigarette, which was now burned down almost to the filter, and then jammed the burning ember into the left eye socket of the man.

The scream was enough for a sadist to get a hard on. Alexander tossed the bloodied smoke into the puddle he stepped in earlier and walked away from it. He turned back to the girl, who was visibly shaken. "For Christ's sake woman, put some clothes on." He continued to walk down the alleyway, looking over the card that was in his hand. Satisfied it was just a bar code, he stuffed it in his pocked and continued on his way.

He approached the door and held it out to the bouncer. The more tattooed of them took it and ran his cell phone over it. Pinging with a green light, Alex took the card back and entered the bar. As was expected of the place, it smelled of stale beet and a distinct urine smell. Of course, walking over a few passed out drunks certainly solidified that. He looked around, to the barflies who would never leave that one girl alone, to the ones drinking alone. Eventually he found his target. In a corner table, sat a man with a rather large statue, with a bottle of the finest whiskey this place ever will/had seen.

Alexander took off his hat and sat down next to the figure, who didn't seem to immediately recognize him. There was a moment of extremely awkward silence while the two neither spoke a word. Eventually, Tibarn voiced something as he poured himself a glass full of liquor. "I didn't expect a man of honor to be here in a den of thieves."

Alexander gave a dry laugh without humor. "Tibarn, if I was a man of honor, you would be in jail right now." Tibarn nodded his head as he looked over to the captain, who wasn't finished with his speech. "Nor would I come to you with a favor I need to call upon. I don't come down here solely for idle matters."

Tibarn downed the glass in a single gulp. Slamming it down on the table, he looked over to his old friend. "Of course you would. You know that if you are caught here, or even rumored after hours, that is the textbook definition of career suicide." Pouring Alex a drink and passing it his way, he looked over to his old roommate. "So what is the favor?"

Link walked in the door with a crack of thunder. He was soaked from the nine meter walk from his door from the driveway. He kicked the shoes off and draped his coat over the chair to have it dry off. "Toony, I am home."

His little brother, already in his pajamas and with a smile on his face, came around the corner and tried to tackle his older brother. Link held fast and tussled his hair. "Did you run the errands like I asked you to?"

He nodded, "Yes Link. But I think I may have gotten something else that you may want." Link raised an eye brown and Toony pulled free a piece of paper and held it out at a considerable arms length from him. Though Link could make out the red words and letters. He felt a rock hard lump form in his throat as he tried to mouth the words.

Toony smirked. "She is expecting a call from you, but I think it would be in rather poor character if you left her stood up for the night." Link hated his little brother when he had the power over him. It went straight to his little head. "But she was a very nice lady, so I think we can work something out."

Link thought for a moment. He could try to take it from his little brother, but it would risk smearing the numbers and /or tearing the paper up. And there was no way Toony could forge that type of penmanship, in scandalous red lipstick. "Alright, I'll bite. What do you want for it?"

Toony thought for a moment, before reacting as if he had an idea form in his head. "Cut back on the PB&J sandwitches, as I will be getting some choice on what I have for lunch." Link nodded, that could be a fair trade. But Toony wasn't done yet. "Oh, and when school starts up, you will drive me to school when I miss the bus." A stretch, but again, it was doable, even though they lived fifteen blocks from school.

"Alright, you have a deal. Now may I please have that?" Toony passed Link the paper, who took it with a somewhat shaking hand. Nervousness or was it something else? Toony went back to his room upstairs while Link sat down on the dinner table. He looked over the thing written in red lipstick. Elincia, Elincia, Elincia... where had he heard that name before he met her yesterday?"

He pulled over the cordless phone that was laying down on the dinner table. He plugged in the numbers that was shown of the paper, and right before he was about to hit dial, he remembered where he had heard the name before.

He had seen the name on many of the rags that were shown at the check-out line at the supermarket. Elincia Crimea, one of the richest heirs in the city second to Zelda Harkinain. He called upon his memory to remember a picture of her. Long green hair, fair skin and the same smile even. Did he just acquaint himself with her?

What did she think of him, what if she saw where he lived? Sure it was a mansion to him but then again, she had almost nine indigents to her name. What if she saw who he really was, would she still feel caring enough to give her phone number?

Shaking his head as he would soon find out, he pressed the dial button and prayed to all that was holy he wouldn't sound like a complete idiot.

Elincia had sweat dripping from her brow, her breath was ragged and still Mia pushed her on. "Come on, Eli! I am the one who is suppose to get the work out, not you." Elincia wouldn't be sweating this much if she wasn't in a thick wool fencing outfit. Still, Mia had a point. She raised her foil and the two touched tips for a few seconds before each one pressed the advantage over the other.

Their work out went as it normally did. Pilates, water aerobics in two piece swim wear, and jogging around the grounds of the mansion. After a cool down, Zelda left for her friend's house, probably to get stoned out of her mind. Peach left a few minutes later, saying she had to catch up with some old friends. Elincia had to bite her tongue in saying a few very bad things about that. Once it was just her and Mia, the fitness trainer was adamant in that Elincia would help with her fencing. Two hours later, Elincia was worn ragged and Mia had get to get more then a trickle of sweat from her brow.

As they moved through the dance hall that was built in to her house, Elicia spoke. "So why do you hold so close on this prophesy of sorts? It could have been an old woman rambling."

Mia nodded under her wire mesh helmet. Countering Elincia's thrust with a parry, she beckoned her to attack her again. "That is what I would have thought, but all her other predictions came true for me in the past. So I am still looking forward to seeing who this man who will best me and steal my heart."

The two grunted as they attacked each other again and again. Eventually, Elincia gained the upper hand and was about to deliver a blow that would have counted as a point before Mia took advantage of an opening and thrusted froward, hitting the receptor on Elincia's chest.

The two stepped back and raised their foils to their face and gave a slight bow to each other. Nodding , Elincia took her helmet off, as did her indigo haired teacher. "You're good Elincia, but you still have a lot to learn."

Elincia chuckled as she heard her cellphone vibrating on the top of the piano they shared the room with. Mia walked off, leaving Elincia alone with it. Elincia picked it up and saw that it wasn't a number she had listed. She hit the receive button and held it next to her ear. "Hello, this is Elincia."

"...Hello, this is Link. I think you met my little brother today." Her heart skipped a beat as she heard his voice once again, she ran outside so their conversation wouldn't echo in the dance hall. When she got out to the greenhouse she stopped as she felt a childish grin escape her lips.

She calmed down and spoke calmly back into the phone. "Yes I did. I see he was kind enough to give you my note..." She didn't know what to say to him, she had never actually been in a relationship before. Save the times the paparazzi fabricated a few stories about how she was almost a complete whore. That was the last time she would let peach dye her hair green. "So... Do you want to see me again?

"Yes, yes I do... I can get off work early one of these days. Is there any place you want to go to later this week?" He sounded uncomfortable. She prayed he didn't figure out who she was, otherwise he may be trying to impress her. And she hated it when she was treated differently than everyone else. "we could... go out for dinner."

Elincia smiled on the other end of the phone. "Yes, I would love that. Where do you want to go? I am fine with just about anywhere." There was a pause on the other end of the phone, where she was almost certain he was struggling to find an answer. "Look, I would be just as happy if you took for some decent pub than if you took me to some high end restaurant. I can go for just about anything."

"Well, how about La Pavilion?" Elincia felt a smile spread across her face, it was her favorite restaurant. She never told anyone that. Granted it as expensive beyond all belief, with a mere twenty dollars for a salad. She hoped that he wasn't doing this just to impress her.

"Ok, I'll see what day can work best for me." She replied and after a long while of silences, the two began to chat again, the awkward silences passing like a breeze.

Janaff ran his hand through his dirty blond hair as he walked through the hallway of his new employer. It was high end, like most of his were, with marble and granite covering many of the walls. He looked at the paintings of the families that adorned said walls and knew that what ever job he was summoned to perform, there was some serious cash behind it.

He opened the door in front of him and saw his employer. There was a cigar in one hand and a glass of spirits in the other. "You are late." The man said to Janaff.

Janaff checked his watch and shook his head. "Correction, I am three minutes early. Regardless, my time of arrival isn't the problem you have to deal with. That is what I do."

The employer chuckled with the assassin. "I now know why my friends have hired you to make their human problems be taken care of. But yes, I have three problems I need you to take care of." Janaff stepped closer and the man sitting behind the desk passed him three pictures.

He looked at them and made his assumptions. One was a Hylian with long blond hair, while the other two were humans with dark blue hair. He could see that all three of them were armed, and they had badges on them. He felt his grip tighten as he looked. He had made it abundantly clear that he would never perform a hit on cops. "You know the rules. No police officers."

"Ah, a man of morals. Even morals can be bought." He placed a briefcase on the table and opened it. There stacks of cash, with the wrapper still around them. "That is three hundred thousand dollars right there, three times more than what a normal hit would cost for three individuals."

Janaff looked at the cash and then back at the pictures. That would easily allow him to live comfortably for a good while, yet he had morals. Screw the money. "I'm sorry, but the answer is still very much a no."

The man still remained calm and passed Janaff an envelope. The hitman took it and opened it. He saw another picture, taken with a rifle camera. It revealed a woman, in maid clothes, with short blue hair. "Your affections for the woman are very well known, Janaff. She doesn't know your occupation. I have no interest in revealing it to her. After all, she will have a bullet between her eyes if you deny me this job."

The words hit his gut harder then any other blow would have. He looked to the cash and the envelope , then back to the three targets. He gritted his teeth and nodded. "Only this once. Do not expect this to be a regular nonoccurence."

The employer nodded. "As I would expect. You are to head over to this building. I already have it set up for them. All you need to do is make sure none of them survive. As such, I have several other hired goons that will aid you in your endeavor."

"I work alone." Janaff snapped. "Many hands make sloppy work."

"Don't fight me Laguz! Many hands share guilt, and you will be untouched by accusations. Listen, the only way to see this job through is to have many carry it through. Weather you are for or against is trivial at best. These three need to be taken care of. I have already sent a warning to another, but these three will not listen."

Janaff growled and nodded.

"A bank? You want me to rob a bank?" Tibarn laughed as Alexander finished his second glass of whiskey.

"Not the bank itself. Safety deposit box 348. There are undoubtedly some folders in there. I have done some research into this vic. And if there is anywhere she stored those documents, it would be in the box. If you rob the bank and steal several boxes along with that one, no one would be the wiser." Alexander explained.

"Then I need to know what is exactly in the folder. I can't just go out on a limb here Alex." Tibarn said.

Alexander poured himself a third glass and took it in all at once. Slamming it to the table, he looked back to Tibarn. "An old score that I need to settle."


	7. Chapter 7

**Well, another week another chapter. This is where things start to pick up and afterwards there will be more adult themes later on in the story (which will explain why I rated this M). So remember to read and review. Enjoy!**

"This is the place?" Ike asked as the three investigators asked as they drove through some shoddy looking housing. Many apartments that were made of stone and were ran down with marks of graffiti covering the outer walls. Words and slogans screaming that this was _Nightcrawler turf_ covered up with w_hat the fuck is a nightcrawler? _Of course it was all woefully misspelled. Truly it was their entering into the land of the wise.

"That is what I was told yesterday, this is the place we need to be. Let's go see if this was a hoax or not." link sounded a bit hurried, as if he was jittery from something last night. Ike was about to ask but knew it was best to leave Link alone. He would tell them eventually.

Marth, however, wasn't letting it die. "You seem a bit uptight Link, more so than usual. What happened last night?"

Link shot Marth a look in the rear view mirror. "None of your damned business. That is what happened last night." An inquisitive look by Marth caused Link to let a grunt of annoyance. "I... talked to someone last night that I met a few days ago while I was out clubbing. Is that a crime?"

"Not telling me is." Marth laughed as Link made a turn quick, causing the bluenett to slam his head into the window. "Ow." Marth said somewhat sarcastically as he rubbed his head.

Link didn't give Marth another look and they turned a few more corners, and as they drove they noticed that more and more buildings were vacant. If there was every any idea that they were descending farther and farther into something that told them to go back, the land around them was doing all of their talking for them.

Eventually they came to an old apartment building, none that was probably the least touched by the criminal elements all around them. Driving the car around the block twice more to see if there was any sign of an ambush, the three parked the car at the top of the block and made their way down. They had their grounds holstered but as they neared the building, they instinctively felt their hands move closer to them.

Ike was at the head and moved up to examine the door. To his surprise and fear, it was partially open. He hesitated for a moment about opening the door, but realized someone may have gotten here before them so he pushed it open.

The door gave way to a loud creak and they looked inside. This place was obviously abandoned for quite some time. Every piece of furniture that was remaining in the building had a very thick layer of dust that covered it. The lights were not working and there were several dozen footprints that remained on the floor. Some were going in while others were going out. "Someone must have all ready been here before us. Stay sharp." Link whispered under his breath.

The three moved in slowly , trying to adjust their body weight so that if there were indeed any creaky boards, they would not be so loud. Each one checking their corner and looking to see if there was anyone waiting to give them a salvo of bullets.

"Look. Over there." Link hissed under his breath and Ike followed the way Link was pointing. There were several foot prints leading their way into what would appear to be a dining room. The door was closed and after examining it, locked. Ike placed is ear against the door and tried to see if he could pick up anything audible in there. He heard labored breathing, and reasoned that if anyone owned this building, that was just cause of breaking the door.

Drawing his handgun, he kicked the rusted door knob, shattering the lock and causing the door to swing open. The three looked in to see a man with extremely light blue hair and stripes of facial hair tied to an old chair with his head hanging down. Checking the room to see if there was anyone else, Ike moved up and raised the head.

The man was alive, but just barely at that. Ike shook him to focus and the man became somewhat aware of his surroundings. Before Ike could ask him anything, the man let forward a long satisfied laugh. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. You fools. It's a trap."

* * *

Alexander reclined in his chair, rubbing his head slightly as the fizzing of his glass of bubbling carbonation that he called medication bubbled away. His head was still spinning and the calls that he missed on the first day of Lyn's murder were making their way to him now in force. He had to answer at least twelve news papers to give information on the case while others were obsessive fans demanding the killer... well, suffer a painful death to say the least.

He reached in to the desk and produced the envelope again. He knew he souldn't be trying to drive himself to open all of those old scars once again, but if felt as if he needed to read the events in the article again.

He made sure Sheik was preoccupied with something as he opened it. He pulled it out and began to read it. He became dimly aware of the words and began to remember what happened. When he started he could smell the hint of smoke, as if a cigarette was smoked in here an hour or two ago now it was as if the bonfire was right in front of him with the wind blowing the smoke into his face. He stifled a cough.

"_Alex, are you suicidal!? You'll burn in there!"_

"_There are people in here, and the fire department is already tied up at the firework display! I'll be fine."_

The words came back to him as he read further and further down. He could almost felt the heat on his skin where his arm got singed by falling wood. He shuttered as he continued down, as his vision began to flip forward and back to the fire.

He grunted in annoyance as he placed the thing down and drank his medication to clear up his head. He knew that it would only be a matter of time before all things would come to light, and he would have to wait for that time to come on its own accord. He folded the paper up and placed it back into the desk as he recalled the rest of that day.

"_Come on, kid! Your going to die if you don't get out now!"_

"_There is someone else in here. I need to get them out!"_

"_Forget them, you are going to die with them if you keep this lone hero shit up!"_

He shook his head as he tried to get the memories out of his head. He should have listened, he would have been woefully ignorant and much happier if he did. He should have turned a blind eye to it and just let it happened. Even though his moral compass inside of him was screaming 'what the hell are you thinking' Alex tried to reason with himself and tired to pass it off as gospel to himself.

He heard a knock on the door and looked up to see Sheik with someone at the door. He gestured for it to open and Sheik poked her head in. "There is someone here to see you." The figure came in and took off his hat. He was a tall man in his mid to late fifties, short brown hair cut close to the head and piercing eyes that Alexander still hadn't grown use to.

When Sheik closed the door behind her, Alexander shot out his hand and the man took it. "Griel you old mule, how have you been doing?"

Greil laughed and gave a bone crushing handshake to his former pupil. "I have been doing rather well, thank you very much. Life as a mechanic is more boring than a cop but none of the less just as satisfying."

Alex gestured for Griel to sit, who did with a smile. "Well, what brings you to my humble little office? The one I still think you should be sitting in today."

Griel shook his head. "No, you were a better investigator eight years ago than I was in my hayday. You must have been board as hell as I spoke of them."

"Greil, we both know that is a load of bullshit. But thanks anyway. Seriously though, why do you come to visit me today?"

Greil sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I still watch the news and have seen the rise in drug arrests. Some of the names were thrown around for the drugs and I noticed that some of them we have delt with before... are they the same grade of purity?"

Alex nodded with a morbid look on his face. "The meth we pick up is at a ninety-seven point three percent purity. The other drugs are completely uncut. There is no filler. No MSG, no corn starch, no flour, not even broken glass. It looks like someone may be taking his calling card, but I have a feeling he is back in the game."

Greil grunted and massaged his arm, where two bullets left their mark. "I had a feeling he would. Still, eight years of rest was a needed peace to the job field. When I took early retirement, I was afraid you would be at the receiving end of his gun.. I guess that hasn't happened yet."

Smiling at the gallows humor, Alexander nodded. "There is still plenty of time for that. The past casts one hell of a long shadow and it will only be a matter of time before it catches up with one." He looked out the window and took another drink of his seltzer. "Tell me, how is the wife and daughter these days?"

"Elena is doing quite fine, thank you for asking about it. Mist is going to be coming home for a bit,, her brake started today so she has a month off from studies of chemistry. Now, how is my boy doing? I only hear what he tells his old man." Griel asked.

Alexander scratched his head. "Ike is one of the best detectives that just got out of training and is showing good promise. I can only hope that it continues because I do not wish for him to change. I-" he was about to continue when the telephone rang. There was a flashing red which ment it was important. "Excuse me a moment." he picked up the receiver and placed it to his head. "Capitan Aquila... shots fired? Where?... what in their minds were they... yes send an ambulance and back up. Keep that number in case this is a prank call. I will have the book thrown at them for it."

He placed the phone back and looked over to Griel. "Well, I got bad news, good news, and more bad news. Tell me which one you want to hear first."

* * *

"What do you mean this is a trap Mr...?"

"Ranulf, and what does it sound like to you? There are people in this building whoa are going to kill us if we don't leave." The man tied to the chair told Ike as he untied the bonds that held the reporter to the piece of furniture.

"So you set us up then?" Link asked as he looked out the window and doors. He hadn't drawn his pistol yet but he was looking around to see if there was any credence to the man's word.

"Me? Ha, look I am just as dead as you are if we are still here when they arrive. These are powerful people, and they have connections that guarantee our murders become nothing more than a box in the cold case shelf. But I was truthful about Lyn, I found somethings." Ranulf said as he tugged on the bonds.

"And why would we take your word on that?" Marth asked.

"Because what other leads do you have? I know about twenty thousand dollars went to someone, and it was not her agent that was killed the same night she was. There is something else going on, something bigger than all of us. Let us go now, while we still have a chance." Ranulf said as he struggled in the chair some more. Ike pulled Ranulf into a corder and pulled free a pocket knife to do the work at a much faster rate.

Marth looked out a window and there was a massive van that was pulling up right out side their door. It was unmarked, and there was the tell tale sign of another van parking behind it. The door slid open on the front one and out came almost twelve men, masks over their head and rapid fire weaponry in hand. "Get down!" Marth yelled as the salvo of rounds opened fire at them.

Link threw Ike to the ground, who did the same with Ranulf when he was freed from his bonds. The bullets ate up the wooden structure, the glass was shattering all around them and light began to invade the holes that the bullets caused. There was plenty of gunmen outside, so Ike knew that it was only a matter of time before they were hit.

The tried to make themselves as small of a target as possible so they would avoid most of the bullets. The gunfire eventually died down and there was a commotion outside. Ike listened and he heard two voices. "They dead, boss wants this a spray and run. We don't linger."

"Leave nothing to chance you idiots." This voice was much more educated. "Spraying and praying does little."

"But boss-"

There was a single gunshot and the sound akin to a wet gurgling sound fills the epty air. "I don't care what he said, this is my job and we are going to do it how I please. If you want to leave find, but I am making sure they are finished off."

The sound of the van speeding away then filled the air and Ike looked himself over. He was grazed on the right hand and left calf, but the others were not so fortunate. Ranulf looked like he took a few to the chest and the blood began to flow out of his wounds at a massive rate. Link was hit in the left arm, though it appeared to just tear muscle and not bone. Marth ad one lodged in his leg.

The door opened and in came a man. He looked like a child, or maybe he was, had sandy hair tied back in a pony tail. He looked around and saw the three wounded policemen and the journalist as they laid down on the ground. He shook his head. "Idiots, I knew this wasn't going to work."

As he lined up a shot on Link, Ike lunged forward, using his sheer bulk to tackle the man to the ground. the gun went flying from his hands, and discharged off on the ground, hitting the nearby wall. As the two landed on the ground, Ike tried to restrain the man, but was met with hands wrapping around his throat. Grunting, he tried to pry that arms off but the thumbs were pressing harder against his jugular. The assassin slammed his fore head into Ike's nose, causing a wet snap as it brother and blood flowing freely from the wound. Ike recoiled, allowing the assassin to put some distance in betwen them. Ike tried to focus through the pain, but didn't notice the assassin with Ike's own pocket knife in hand. The man rushed forward and Ike brought up his arm to defend himself.

He felt the blade cut through his skin , and then he felt it jam through his arm. Grunting in pain, he began to get locked in an headlock with the assassin. "Who... do you work for?" Ike asked as the two struggled to get the upper hand.

"Someone who wants you three dead." The assassin gave Ike and upper cut and the detective was sent sprawling. The assassin retrieved his gun and looked back to Ike and aimed it at him. "I have to do this. Better you three than her." Ike tried to stand up but couldn't force himself to. He looked up at his killer's .45 and wanted to look death in the face.

_Click_. The sound was satisfying that Ike almost felt his heart stop when he heard it. He rand forward and tried to tackle the man again. The man grabbed the pocket knife that was in his arm still and pulled it free. Ike drew his own side arm and aimed it at the assassin. "Drop the weapon or I will drop you."

The assassin laughed and held up the magazine to Ike's gun. "Hard to kill a man when you have nothing to shoot with." Ike pulled the trigger and the chambered round flew to graze the shoulder of the man. The son of a bitch didn't flinch. "Even if I didn't, that arm wound is not only lacerating, but it's throwing your aim off."

He placed the magazine down and laughed. Laughed and laughed some more. "Tell you what. Its been a good long while since I got my blood flowing like that. My job is to send a warning to you, so this is the warning. Stay out of what you are looking into. If not, I am afraid I will have to come to finish it next time."

He picked up a hat off the table , adjusted it and nodded back to Ike. "Have a pleasant day, Ike Griel." Once the door was closed and the sounds of sirens filled the air around him, did Ike give himself the luxury of passing out.

* * *

Elincia woke up with a smile on her face. She felt as if there was not a care in the world for her. For almost two hours last night she talked with Link and she even dreamed about him. About running her fingers through his sandy hair, to see the muscle she felt underneath the shirt.

She smirked in the mirror as she fixed her hair for today. She didn't really have anything planned, bust she didn't want to look like a slob. As she ran her fingers through it and fixed it the way it was meant to, she began to feel a bit embarrassed about the whole situation. Here she was, rumored by the press to be in at least twelve relationships at the same time and even sharing a partner with Zelda, was actually a single all the time. What if Link didn't know that, for better or for worse?

She shook her head and walked down to the staircase in a summer dress to the person who could help her the most. She wouldn't dare take this Zelda or Peach, they might actually make it worse. But she could trust someone else.

Lucia was downstairs preparing the two's breakfast. "Good morning milady. Breakfast is served. Slice melon, three griddle cakes, and three eggs scrambled." Lucia said as she sat down for her own meal while Elincia did the same, with a peculiar look on her face. Lucia knew that look all to well. "Does someone capture your mind at this hour?"

Elincia nodded and drank her coffee. "Yes there is how did you know?" She chuckled with Lucia like a couple of schoolgirls with hormones coming out of the ears. Actually, that isn't very far from the truth. "I met a man about two days ago and I think I am looking into the eyes of an angel. This is what heaven must feel like. He even suggested taking me to La Pavilion. La fuckin' Pavilion!"

"Language young lady." Lucia chided her mockingly. "So what is this angel's name and can you describe him for me? I mean, my Janaff is cute, strong and packing plenty for our special occasions together. But what is your man like?"

Elincia looked off into the distance as she ate her breakfast. She would have to call him later to see what day would work best for them. "Long golden sand hair, piercing blue eyes, and a mouth that couldn't say anything offending. Unlike his little brother." she mused

* * *

"Damn, damn, damn." Link cursed under his breath as the doctor finished up the last of the stitches. It was more life the alcohol burning on his exposed wound rather that the stitches itself.

"You are lucky men." The doctor attending them helped put some more gauze over Ike's arm. "While these are painful wounds, none of them will cause sever damage now or later in your life. Your friend will survive surgery, but he will be able to speak to you for only a little while before then. It looks like he will make it but stomach wounds are the most difficult to determine."

Marth grunted as a nurse finished apply the last of the bandages over his leg and where else he was shot. "Still, if the others in the precinct hear I was shot in my ass, I won't hear the end of the comments."

Ike laughed, though it was somewhat painful to do so. "It didn't hurt that much probably. At least you will have quite the story to tell. Just imagine if you were shot in the front at that angle."

"Point taken." Marth said as he pulled himself to his feet, letting out a grunt of pain as he did so. The leg would be wrapped up in a cast. "Still, we need to ask Ranulf what he knows before he goes under the knife."

"I am having him wheeled in as we speak." The doctor said. No sooner had he said that, Ranulf came in on a gurney. It stopped in front of the three and ranulf opened his eyes as the doctors and orderlies left them. "I should have become a teacher instead." He muttered under his breath. "I got a few minutes, what do you wish to know?"

"Who did Lyn give the twenty thousand to?" Ike asked as he moved his arm to get the feeling back in it.

"Couple of bastards, you may have heard of them. Ganondorf, Bowser, and Ludveck are the ones I recognized at the cornering. Barely got out of there with my life. Lyn gave them the money and a few words were said. I can't remember them exactly but I have pictures at my apartment. You can look through them if you wish."

"Do you know who killed her?" Link asked, trying to get to the point.

"Hack-hm," Ranulf coughed some bloodied mucus out of his throat. "No, I don't know who exactly killed her but it must be..." His voice was getting weaker and he gestured for Ike to lean in close. "The... upper three had the motives and mea-" He closed his eyes, passing out and the doctors came in to get him off to surgery.

The three sat there in a trance like state, looking to each other. "The upper three had the motives and means is what I think he was saying. I am guessing at the last part." Ike said aloud.

"Who had the means and motives?" A new voice asked as Capitan Alexander Aquila and Griel came through the door. "Jesus H. Christ you three, I trust you with one job that you can handel on your own and you are bleeding over the floor. Either you are really lucky or unlucky to do all this and survive."

"How you holding there son?" Griel asked Ike.

"Hurting but I will live." Griel embraced his son in a hug, but stopped when a gack of pain escaped his mouth.

"Sir," Link said to Alexander who looked over to him. "I think we may have had a break in the case."


	8. Chapter 8

**Well, another week and another chapter. Thanks again Con for the dinner scene, I really appreciate it. Remember to read and review. Enjoy!**

* * *

"All right... let me see if I have this right?" Alexander said as he paced the inside of his office, looking to all three of the investigators, who were seated and each on had a near beer in their hand. No alcohol in it, but it would calm down their nerves and take their mind off the pain. "You survived what the police officers on the scene described as 'swiss cheese in wood', Ike managed to save you from the assassin who tried to clean you guys up, and now we have three high ranked suspects in the case."

Ike nodded, taking a drink of the can in his hands. "That is correct sir. If Mist catches wind of this, I will not hear the end of it." The other two chuckled but each regretted it when the wounds reminded them that they were present there.

Alexander sat down in his chair and buried himself in to his hands in stress. "Bowser, Ludveck, and Ganondorf. Christ, as if this case wasn't making me an addict." He fumbled with a pack to produce a cigarette and lit it, his hand shaking until he got the rush of nicotine in his veins. "An heir to an arms empire, a rising political star and one of the city's most eligible bachelors. Three suspects I can't even think of getting them into questioning without having a media firestorm and can't properly protect our sole witness to the crime."

"Quite the predicament we have here, captain." Marth said as he looked around to the others. "They know we are cops, and they think this would have scared us into letting this go. How should we continue this case?"

Alexander looked out the window as if in thought. What to do? Letting this go would betray all what he swore to do and what he was risking his own career, life and that of several others. Continuing it would be just as painful. Time to pick the poisoned cup he would drink from. "Well, you guys are not fit for street undercover work so that cuts option off the table. Even more so, to kill a monster, you do not cut off one of the fingers. You go straight for the head."

"Capitan, what are you getting at?" Link asked, though he had an idea where the Capitan was going.

"Nothing as of the moment. I'll make the decision in a while. I do however, expect you three to go home in the vans I have provided. I'll let you know of my decision later tonight. Keep your pagers at the ready." Alexander said as he looked down into his paper work as if to take his mind off of something.

Ike rose and walked with a slight limp to the door, Marth not far behind him. Link, however, stayed. "Sir, could I bother you for a minute?"

Alex looked up and put the spend cigarette butt into the ash tray. "I have the time. You don't call me sir unless it is something personal."

Link smiled slightly and ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, it's a few things actually. One, I am asking if I could get a week's advance on my paycheck this time."

Alexander raised an eyebrow. "If I may be so bold, what brings that request up?"

Link felt a little awkward in talking to Alexander like this. Though he showed himself to be like a father figure to them, he was still their boss. "I...have this girl who wants to go to dinner with me. I am thinking I will do that tonight to take my mind off of today. It's La Pavilion."

"So you want the rest of your year's salary more or less?" Alexander joshed.

"Year and a half including the tip. If that is a problem I am sure-" Link was still speaking when Alexander dug out his wallet and laid two crisp one hundred dollar bills on the counter and passed them over to him. "Sir, I couldn't-"

"Link, you were shot at today for the first time. Live rounds. They weren't practice shots, they were made to kill. Besides, to be fair that is twenty dollars in keno I won a few nights ago. Go out, live life for a while. But I have to ask, who is it that you are taking out for a night on the town?"

Link hesitated and scratched the back of his head. "Well, she... sorry sir, but I am still getting use the whole fact that it is her that I am taking out to dinner."

"Quit playing the adjective game with me, give me a name." Alexander asked in a somewhat joshing tone as he pulled free another cigarette.

"Elincia Ridell Crimea." Link blurted out at once, causing Alexander to fumble with the fling wheel on his lighter. He looked up to him with a bit of a bullshit look. When he saw Link's straight face, Alex nodded dumbly and Link left to leave with a smile on his face.

Alexander managed to get a lit flame on his lighter and turned to he window. Crimea? He couldn't believe it, but Link was honest in how he told the facts. He looked out and took another deep inhale of the smoke before he let his mind wander a bit more.

Them, he thought of something. It was no secret that Elincia was friends to two other of the richest families in the city, Toadstool and Harkinian. Maybe... it was a long shot to say the least, and it required that several things to go absolutely correct.

He rapped his fingers on the desk and was thinking of what to do. It was plausible, but difficult to get done. He would be sending so many up shit's creek without a paddle, but it was plausible. He could do that, it was just how the others would agree to that.

He heard the telephone ring and he picked it up. "Aquila."

"We have it. Riverside docks at seven." Tibarn explained quickly. Alexander hung up and made his choice.

* * *

"Tonight?!I am sure it is jammed pack, you would have to kill to get in on this day." Elincia stated with an extreme amount of surprise in her voice as Link talked to her over the phone.

"It was, however I know a health inspector who is owed a few favors who owes me one. I hope you can make a six-thirty dinner. You have a few hours, if you can't-" He explained over the phone before she let her excitement get the better of her.

"Yes! Yes I can make it! I'll pick you up if that is alright. I wouldn't try to have you get on the public train dressed up in your suit."

There was a bit of a groan on the other end of the line. "Alright, I don't want to make this a burden on you but if you wish you can pick me up." Elincia felt a smile on her face grow as Link spoke. Humble and caring about how she felt. Small wonder she fell for him.

"I'll pick you up in two hours, that will give me plenty of time to clean myself up. I'll see you later for dinner." She made a kissing sound into the receiver as she hung up. She was still smiling likea madman when she ran up the stairs to he room. She had just the perfect dress for the occasion.

She ran to her room when she was stopped dead in her tracks by her cousin who was staying the month at her place. "Yes Sanaki?" Elincia asked with a little bit of distaste in her voice.

He cousin was unusual with her natural violet hair and her attitude that surprised even Elincia on more than one occasion when she was forced to bring her along with her friends. Uncle Redding was adamant in that she would try to take her along. Though today was optional, Elincia knew Sanaki would throw a fit if she wasn't invited.

"Oh, I was just seeing what my lifeless cousin has going on." Yup, she broke into the make up again. Her face was a bit white, and the eye liner was not the correct shade, and she was wearing the most gaudy pair of heels Elincia had hidden away. Nine inches with little support and a Pepito-bismal like pink. She felt bad if she told Peach to take them back on her birthday. "Were you talking to your imaginary friend on the telephone again?"

Oh how she wanted to smack her from time to time.. But Elincia had to be reasonable, she was probably this big of an ass when she was a little kid. "I have a date tonight, and I am going to make myself presentable. And I don't need you help with that." She put a little more force on the don't, after all she didn't want to scare Link by looking like a Halloween monster.

Before Sanaki could fire back a retort, Elincia was already in her room and wiped her brow. That was a close one. She stripped down to her undergarments, a dark sinful black that she picked out when Samus took her shopping at a store she frequented.

She looked through her wardrobe. There had to be that dress around here somewhere. Where was it... ahh there it was. She picked out an ankle long dress, just as black as her undergarments. It was shoulder length for the arms, and the cut was along her back. She placed that on her bed and looked for her heels that went with this dress. She pulled out a pair of three inches that covered a good amount of her foot. She learned the hard way about her foot sliding out of open topped heels in the rain.

Once her dress was on the bed, she took out a razor and began to make sure that her body was entirely smooth for this night. She paid attention to her legs, though Link wouldn't see them, she wanted to be sure that it was smoothed out regardless.

Once her body was smoothed down, She took off her top and slid the dress on. Even though there were straps on it, those and her bra straps never fully agreed with one another. She adjusted it until her girls felt right. She looked into the mirror and smiled approvingly.

She looked to her hair and wondered what to do with it. She could leave it straight, but she wanted to spice it up a bit. She began to do some quick movements with her hands while she reached for a bottle filled with lilac perfume. She gave herself a few dabs squirts as she finished tying her hair into a bun.

She then laid down on the bed and relaxed the butterflies in her chest. She would soon be with him again, and this time they would be alone, no friends to butt in or criticize her. She couldn't wait.

* * *

Marth slid Ike a bottle as the two rested in the recliners at Ike's house. The clouds were darkening up again and Ike just needed to relax. He didn't know a better place than that in which he did in his own home. Marth screwed off the top of his own and drank the cherry flavored soft drink. He would have preferred something else a bit stronger, but it would have to do for the moment.

"You know, when I became a detective, I thought of all of the tv shows we would be living. The last thing I would expect was drinking cherry soda, eating a four meat pizza while playing a first person shooter."Marth said as he took a swig and Ike passed him one of the remotes.

"Deal with it." Ike said as they finished the loading screen. The latest shooter, _Militaire Decoratie, _a Belgian video game Mist's roomate gave her and she in turn gave to Ike. It had subtitles, and the game was a welcomed changed from the never ending franchise of red white and blue masturbation. Even Marth enjoyed it, who was by some definitions a hipster when it came to video games. But Ike was forced to admit that some of the old games like _Duke Shootem _and _First Fantasy VII _held up nicely. "I'll play as the Belgians this time around, you can take French Forgien Legion."

"No fair, the second I spawn they throw down their rifles and surrender." Marth jabbed at Ike while the two readied their character. The two began their game and soon it became a close compition between the two. Where Ike perfered brute force with the largest weapon he could get his hands on, Marth just kept picking him and his squad off one by one.

"So, what does this case look like to you?" Ike asked as he tossed a flashbang into Marth's room.

"About what, exactly?" Marth replied as he jumped out of the second window just in time to avoid Ike.

"Who's behind it all, you know?"

Marth paused for a moment and loaded his rifle again as his character ran for cover. "Someone with a lot of influance. Not every drug dealer even on a stable market can hire that many assassins to come after us. Besides, with those three names, something has to be going on in the upper echilons of society."

"True enough." Ike responded as he chased after Marth. "So if we do have to investigate high society, will your metrosexual abilities help us?"

Marth laughed. "Being a metrosexual has its perks, especially in high school when the hot girls think they can convert you. Helped me get laid a lot in boarding school."

"These are girls and not drags, right?" Marth slugged Ike across the space in between them because of the comment he made. "Seriously though, besides having a fashion sense, what else are your superpowers?"

"Well, it is easy to strike up conversations with socialites and if you really want to," he snapped his fingers, "they are out of their clothes faster than a prom dress."

Ike chuckled under his breath. "So what is it with the whole thing of girls trying to convert the gays? I mean when I was in school we had our fair share of that, but I never got that."

Marth took another bite of his pizza and held up his middle and index finger as he chewed. "Two reasons. One, probably some religion out there that speaks against homosexuality and they see it as their duty to convert them back to the light. Second, when word gets out that you are packing eleven and a half inches, it drives the girls crazy. They have to see if the rumors are true."

"Once you get done playing with it." Ike shot back and Marth gave him a death glare. "So that may come in handy."

"Stop talking about yourself Ike. Your hand must be getting sore after you learned what to do with it." Marth jabbed back at him.

"Shut it, fairy."

"Make me, butch."

The two glared at each other for a while, waiting for the next comment. After a while, Math spoke, "Stalemate?"

Ike nodded. "Oh, and Marth?" When Marth gave him an inquisitive look, Ike pressed the knife button on the remote game control and Ike's character slit Marth's throat as the title game over flashed on the screen. "You are so easily distracted."

"Asshole." Math grunted as he finished off the last of his soda and went for another. "So why isn't Link here? I thought that he loved playing video games."

"I asked him but he said he had plans for tonight." Ike responded and he reclined smugly in his chair.

"So eating ice cream with his little brother and crying himself to sleep is his night's plan?"

Ike shrugged. "A good guess as any. Link isn't the one to go out too much."

* * *

"Thank you", Elincia said and entered the restaurant through the door Link held open for her. He immediately got some plus points for being polite.  
Though it was still summer and the days were more than hot, the evenings had already turned chilly enough for a light jacket to be required— which Link immediately helped her out of. She could get used to that.

A waiter led them to their table and gave them the menus, then lit a candle. "Enchanté to have you here, madame. You too, monsieur. Is zere anyzing I can bring you to drink, already?" the man asked with a strong french accent, and Elincia quickly opened the Menu to choose something. It wasn't the first time she was here, but she never really thought about what to order.

Link placed his hand on hers, though. "Yes. A Martini, stirred, please. And the lady will have a Moët."

"Very well." The waiter gracefully rushed away while Elincia took a strand of her hair and began playing with it, concentrating on keeping the redness from her face. With her friends, all Link would have gotten was a slap in the face, but she was incredibly turned on by his self-confidence. Could this man get any better?

"So", she said and smiled. "What did you do today?"

"Oh, you know, consulting stuff and the like, it was a boring day. What about you?"

Elincia giggled and wrapped a strand of hair around her finger. She liked the attention she was getting from him. "Come on, I'm sure it couldn't have been that boring! I'm curious", she insisted.

"No, it really was that boring", Link laughed. "Even more boring than usually, to be honest, so you've really picked the wrong day to ask about it. There was a lot of paperwork to be done today, you know, filling out papers, filing documents… I'm really glad to be here now. I really want to hear about your day, though."

Link's smile was so charming and winning that it made her melt inside and forget that she wanted to know more, just to listen to him and watch him talk, no matter how boring his day had been. But if he was interested in what she had been doing today, no problem. "Alright. It wasn't the most interesting day either."

"Better than mine, I'm sure", he encouraged waiter came and filled their glasses, then took their orders; Elincia waited until he was gone himself before resuming their conversation.

"I didn't really have anything planned for today… I went jogging and did some fitness. A friend who's not always in the city is visiting, so I met her for lunch and afterwards I had to spend some time with my little cousin, Sanaki. I mean, not had to, obviously nobody's forcing me, I really like spending time with her, we—"

"I understand."

"Good, that's good." Could her mouth just please wait for her brain to think it through before starting to babble random stuff? "So, that's kind of what I did today… And then I got your call and got ready."

Link's smile got even warmer and Elincia's face even hotter at his comment. "I think I might have already mentioned that, but you look absolutely stunning."

"Oh, thanks. I just opened my closet and grabbed the first thing I saw." Big lie.

"I'm sure anything looks good on you. So how old is your cousin? Because if she's my brother's age, I completely understand how you must feel." He laughed. "I mean, I have to deal with him every day. It can easily get too much sometimes."

"Tell me about it… She just turned 10."

He jokingly grimaced. "Oh, that's the worst age!"

"I know, right! She recently entered her girly phase, steals my clothes and shoes and dresses up, uses up my makeup. But what can I do… It's quite funny, actually. She often ends up looking like the Joker."

Link had to put a hand on his mouth to keep the Martini he just took a sip of from spilling out, so sudden was his burst of laughter.

"Yes, well…" Elincia grinned and observed him while he was composing himself. "I guess I could lock my room, but she isn't harming anyone."

"Kids."

"Yeah. So tell me, since when does Toony live with you? What about your parents?" She regretted the question the moment it left her lips. What if they were dead? What if they left Link and his brother? She prayed not to have struck a touchy point.

Although his answer was rather evasive, Link seemed at ease with the question. He was relaxed, it seemed like nothing could wipe away his smile (and a gorgeous smile, it was.) "Uhm, I fell out with them quite some time ago as a result of taking custody of my brother. We don't really keep in touch anymore. It's a complicated story. And a really long one, at that."

"I bet it is." To be fair, Elincia was now practically burning up to know the details, but it would be anything but polite to dig around in his past right now.

"So you're a freelance consultant for the city offices, right?" He opened his mouth to say something, but Elincia was faster. "Now, before you say anything, I don't want you to describe your boring job in details. But what do you have to study to get there?"

"I think I might even go as far and tell you that", he joked. "Alright, but that's the last I'll hear of my job today."

Their mussels came, just in time to distract them from their conversation for a moment. Elincia chuckled at his statement, but her smile was a little hesitant. How could anyone hate their job that much? "I know it's probably stressful, but why don't you just quit if you dislike what you do?"

She felt ignorant at that moment, because his job was a source of income and guaranteed him a roof over the head and money to buy food from— money to go out with her. Not everyone was at lucky as she was (and she regularly felt bad about it). After all, what did she know? Maybe he couldn't find anything better.

"I don't hate my job", he said a little surprised.

She was surprised as well. "But you certainly don't seem to like it."

His face was pensive. "Granted, it could be a little more exciting from time to time, and I could do without all the paperwork… But it pays nice. And being a freelancer is certainly an advantage."

"I guess that's true. So what did you study to end up being a freelance consultant?"

"Criminal Justice, in Clock Town, with a minor in Business Administration."

"At the Community College?"

"That's right."

"I hear Clock Town's beautiful." She'd always wanted to go there, given that it wasn't too far away. However, she'd just never gotten the opportunity to.

Link grinned. "Well it's certainly prettier than the city! The area's full of national parks and historical treasures. And there's not as much smog as here."

Elincia skewered a mussel on her fork and briefly wondered whether it came from Clock Town. They were big on fishing up there.

"What are you doing, Elincia? Semester break?"

"Precisely. Civil Law and Art Theory minor, here in the city. It's not the easiest, but I love it."

"I'm glad you enjoy it."

"Yes, me too." She couldn't help but stare at this handsome face and at his perfect shoulders, not too slim but not too broad either, in this black shirt and dark emerald tie… She should probably stop. She must've been looking silly.

"Ehm." Someone to her right suddenly coughed slightly, and both Elincia and Link jumped on their seats. The waiter was back. "Is everyzing to your contentment, madame?"

She wildly nodded, mouth full with food.

"You, monsieur?"

"Yes, thank you very much."

"Pardon to interrupt, but we would like to offer you some wine. Très, très bon wine, that is. On ze 'ouse."

"On the house", Link repeated, a little incredulous. Elincia herself was surprised. She was here quite often, and never had she received something on the house. How random.

"Well?" Gaston, as his name tag told them, was getting a little impatient.

"We would love to taste the wine, sir", Elincia ensured the man, and Gaston nodded (snobbishly) before hurrying away.

Link still couldn't believe it. "And it's on the house", he whispered in amazement and shoved another round of mussels into his mouth. Elincia giggled at his obvious excitement. How cute he was.

"So, back to college. It's quite fun, yes", Elincia continued and put her fork away. Her plate was now empty. "I'm not into sororities, but I've joined a few clubs. I joined the orchestra."

"Your university has its own orchestra?"

"Of course. Didn't Clock Town?"

"Never heard of one, to admit it", Link said and pushed his plate away. He was done eating, too. "But I probably couldn't have joined it anyway. What do you play?"

"The harp."

Link's eyes widened. He seemed impressed— like everyone who heard she played the harp. "Wow. Now that's something. I feel like a noob now", he laughed. "I play the flute."

"Like, the cross flute, or…"

He shook his head, reddening. "No, just a regular, wooden flute. Yes, yes, I know, everyone learns that in primary school—"

"Kinda", she laughed.

"But it just stuck with me, you know. And I can assure you, I'm better than a grade schooler!"

"I believe you. You must show me sometime."  
She bit her lip as he smiled. "It would be my pleasure."

"Ehm."

They jumped again, close to a heart attack this time. Gaston was back. "Madame, monsieur. Behold, your wine." Indeed, he was holding a fancy crystal bottle in his hands, filled with a yellowy-white substance. Elincia cringed a little. She preferred red wine. "A 1997 Monégasque Riche Blanc. Most exquisite, if I may add. May I?"

"Certainly", she said and gave Gaston her glass. He proceeded to fill it with the beverage and subsequently poured it into Link's glass. Gaston then left the bottle on the table and left them alone after bowing slightly.

Elincia cautiously took a sip, deciding that it tasted quite good for white wine. Link seemed to think the same. He nodded in approval. "Fruity and dry. It does seem to have aged quite enough, I'd say."

She raised her eyebrows, impressed. "I see you know your wine?"  
"Oh, I'm not a wine expert, mind you. I have a frend who is though, he drags me from one wine tasting to another."

"Don't sell yourself too short. I'm impressed you can even tell this wine is dry. I know some people who don't."

"Don't they have taste buds?"

Delighted, Elincia laughed. "I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that. But do tell me about your friend, the wine expert. You already know my friends", —_and it sure must've been a pleasure making Zelda's acquaintance_—, "I want to hear about yours."

"Well, there is the wine expert", Link began and took a sip. "And there's another one, no wine expert though. This one prefers beer, Ike is his name, and he's quite headstrong, which is why lately I've been the only one to accompany Marth —the expert— to his beloved wine tastings. We all work together in the city offices. In fact, they're both freelance consultants as well."

_Maybe they like to talk more about their job than you do._ "So you spend a lot of time together, I presume?"

"We do. At work, after work… They're fun."

"Are they single?" _Urgh, stupid, stupid mouth! Think before you speak, Elincia!_

Link looked a little baffled, but laughed it off. "Hey now. You're on a date with me."

"No, I mean— Yes, I know— I meant for my friends."

"Right… Well, yes, they are. Sorry to say that, but I'm sure they will be delighted about meeting the brunette, if she's always that charming."

"Watch it, she's still my friend." She wanted to, but could not be mad at that man with the blue eyes and sunny hair. "I never said we have to set them up… But I would like to meet your friends very much. Why don't you meet mine as well while we're at it? You know, I have other friends, too. Not only 'the brunette', who has a name, by the way."

Link sighed and ruffled his hair and Elincia immediately felt the urge to run her hands through it. "No, I'd sure love to meet your friends… Alright, yeah, let's do this."

Perfect. Elincia mentally rubbed her hands. She officially had another date with Link and could simultaneously set up Peach and Zelda with these two friends of Link's. Well, maybe only Peach. To be realistic. As long as she'd get to go on a double date afterwards, Elincia would be fine.

But most importantly, she would see Link again. Giddy with euphoria, she downed her wine with one gulp.

* * *

Alexander opened up his battered pocket watch and shook his head as the second hand clicked on. It was seven-ten p.m. Roughly five more minutes before he could call Tibarn officially late. The dockside was not a place one wished to be after dark. The scuba divers have already found plenty of bodies with an anchor to the feet at the bottom of the river.

He waited under a light post on a bench, tapping his foot as his head looked back and forth constantly. He knew Tibarn wasn't one to tarry uselessly or set someone up. Something was holding him back. Alex would have to ask him when he saw Tibarn.

He was just about to look again when he heard the sound of a familiar truck with it's muffler half shot pull around a corner. He turned to look at it and saw the florescent lights and the faded tan paint job. The truck pulled up next to him and switched the engine off as the occupant came out of the cab. "You're a bastard. You know that Alex?" Tibarn said as he held out a rather large metal box. "It was a rather busy day at the bank today, and many were in the vault itself. Took some rubber bullets, but we managed to subdue the crowds."

Alexander took the box from Tibarn as he sat down next to him. "No one was killed?"

Tibarn nodded. "A few broken ribs here and there, but none of them life threatening. I unlocked the box for you, so let's see what's in the damned thing already."

Alexander chuckled at the blunt nature of his friend and opened it. From the light given by the post, he could see many things rather clear. There were birth certificates, baby pictures of Lyn and little Roy in the hospital and a picture of the parents with the red head swaddled in a picture together.

Instantly feeling a rather sharp pang of guilt, Alex knew that he had to give these back to Eliwood when he had the opportunity. As he sorted through the roll of one hundred dollar bills, he found what he was looking for. It was at the bottom, the tie around it still, and there was hand writing that he recognized on it.

He nodded grimly and Tibarn took the unspoken order to leave. As the truck rolled away, Alexander opened the portfolio and read the first paragraph in the all too familiar handwriting he knew to himself.

_Lyn, I know we haven't spoke in a while, but you must listen to me. I can't meet you in person, so I leave this bundle of documents in your hands. I know he will want me dead, even though he is of my own blood. But all of this must be brought to light. It may ruin my step-sister's life and cost me my own, but so many others have suffered the same. I know this sounds crazy, hell I did too at first, but please... do not let these be destroyed._

He read the name and confirmed his fears. He picked up the pager that was hung around his belt and plugged in a few codes before he sent it off to the three men he needed right now. More than ever before.


	9. Chapter 9

**Huge apologies for the lateness of this chapter. I tried to write but a combination of writer's block, real life, and school kept getting in my way. I will try to get more chapters out as soon as I can. Thank you for your patience and remember to review!**

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Alexander checked his watch again. Ever since this case, he noticed mentally that he was becoming more detailed according to time. Fifteen minutes passed since he last did, and the almost deserted precinct seemed to make time drag out. Save a few officers who were put on the shit watch where all the prank calls came in, it was just about empty.

Alexander looked to his empty coffee mug and realized that he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight with or without the caffeine. He rose from his seat and made his way to the coffee machine. Unfortunately, it brewed what could only be described as monkey piss and battery acid. And the one who ran the machine couldn't help but be a bit of a screw up with it. Even though she completely felt terrible of the whole thing.

Malon, the young redhead Hylian intern was trying to fix the primary machine where it would appear she didn't place the filter in right and it flooded the ground holder. She had a bit of a flustered look on her face turned around with a sheepish look to match when Alexander cleared his throat behind her. "Captain... I'm sorry but the machine isn't working right now. I don't have any coffee right now."

Alexander pointed to a half full pot on the top of the machine. "Then what about that pot?"

She shook her head furiously. "No, I was just about to throw that out. It's very bad. Not even Falco would drink it."

He held his mug over to her. "Fill it."

She hesitated and eventually reached for it. She pored the still steaming dark brown liquid into the cup and passed it back to him. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

He nodded and took a sip. He smacked his lips and looked into the mug, as if it would speak to him. "Now that." He muttered under his breath as he took another sip. "That is something right there."

Malon seemed to be taken back. "You- you actually like that?"

"This? Hell no, it's the most disgusting thing I have put in my stomach since college." Her face dropped slightly as he took another sip. "But I will tell you one thing Malon. Nothing in the world is better then a cup of coffee that is this revolting."

Now she looked really confused. "Ummm, what about a good cup of coffee sir?"

He set the mug down and began to talk with his hands as well as his mouth. "When you have a good cup of coffee, you focus on that cup. The way it looks in your mug, the smell that moves to your nose , the wisps of steam, and above all, that heavenly taste. You block out all other things around you as you try to focus your entire life on that cup at that moment. But when you have a god-awful cup of coffee, you block everything out of your mind to get rid of what you just tasted. You don't want anything to do with it. So you think of all the good cups of coffee you have had in your life with every sip of that bad coffee. And in my life, that's a helluva lot of good coffee."

"Wow... that's almost poetic." She said as she saw the black stream of brewed coffee came into a new pot.

"Well, I have been alive for thirty plus years. I might as well contribute the philosophical world in some way." He took another sip of the stomach eating coffee. He gave an appreciative nod to Malon and moved back to his office. He set the up down and reviewed the folders he had. The safety deposit box as a whole was located back at his apartment a few blocks away from the station. These were the folders he needed for the moment. Actually, they were the only ones that didn't directly give away that these were not his and were Lyn's by default. He grimaced as he looked each of them over.

It was like opening old wounds and then rubbing salt in them. It was that painful to do all this again. Why didn't he follow his mentor's advice and not go in. All of this would have been out of sight and out of mind. He wouldn't have to do this right now? If only he let her burn-

He mentally yelled at himself for even considering the idea again. It was the right thing to do and even though it was tearing him apart and blood was flowing, he still would have done it. It was just who he was. He reached into his pack of smokes , and fumbled around to pull free one of the last ones he had. Taking the lighter free of his pocket, he spun it around to produce that low burning flame to light his smoke. He really needed to find another way to deal with stress. His health insurance would only go up as fast as he went through these cigarettes. Still, there had to be something else to take his mind off the case that didn't involve turning his lungs coal black.

Speaking of distractions, or an end to them, the three people he paged shuffled into the office with peculiar looks on their faces. Ike, Marth, and a well dressed Link took still stood as Alex gave them the nod to sit down. "Forgive the lateness, but this couldn't wait till morning. I would offer you some coffee, but I would rather keep you out of going to the hospital twice in a day." It was a weak joke, but they smiled for a few seconds. "I pray I wasn't interrupting anything special."

"Not really sir, though I am more curious why Link is dressed up as he is." Ike asked as he jerked his thumb towards Link, who shrugged like a cheeky little bastard and Alexander nodded, a small smile upon lips.

"I just got back from dinner. Don't worry, cap. We just finished and she dropped me off a few blocks from here. Pray tell, what happened that you summoned us here?"

Alexander passed over three files, one for each of the investigators and they opened to look at them. Their faces went from that of confusion, realization, and surprise. "I got these files from an... anonymous source that wishes not to be named." He flicked the empty cigarette butt out the open window, where a rainstorm was just about to begin. "These have several newspaper clippings, receipts, and photographs of our three poster boys doing some less then desirable things for the city."

The three looked at their pictures and knew that the Capitan was telling the truth. Ike saw this Ludveck character in what appeared to be a violent confrontation with a gang banger. Marth saw Bowser talking with another shady individual, and Link observed a series of photographs of Ganondorf with several... street workers.

"So what are you suggesting sir?" Ike asked as he passed his folder around. "We go public with these? I am sure the city would like to know that lives of their three prominent citizens."

Alexander laughed without humor. "And open up the media backlash of the century for this city?" He fiddled around with the back of smokes in his hands for a moment before he tossed it aside in a bit of frustration. "If we do that, the hammer comes down on us faster and harder than a few of the other high profial cases we have handled over the years. The Mario sweatshop bust will look like picking up the common street pusher."

"A double murder with some connections to high society is unusual but not unique." Marth said as he slunk back into the chair. "I mean, we had a few back here in the mid to late 90's when I was starting to read the newspaper. What's different about this case?"

Alexander grunted, and didn't respond immediately. The three detectives knew that there was something else besides a double homicide to this. "There is something else to this case, isn't there?" Link voiced the rest of the group's concern. "You seem hesitant to share the rest with us."

The captain readjusted how he sat in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair. "It was before your time. Hell, it was almost before my time." The three detectives senses the 'storyteller mode' of mind form on Alexander and immediately paid closer attention. "A lot of bad memories and nightmares came out from that eventful day."

"Just talk about it, sir." Marth said off handedly. "The more you talk about it the better you will feel about it."

Alexander scoffed. "Sure, just talk about it. That's what the psychologist says, 'just talk bout it.' Bastard wasn't there, wasn't in that fire. Didn't see what I saw, didn't smell human flesh burning, didn't have to deal with the mark that is forever put on your back." The others looked at him and realized he wasn't talking to them anymore. His eyes became focused on something in the distance, and they were not even in his frame of mind.

He leaned back and pulled free another smoke, hands shaking slightly as he did so. "October 26th, 2004. Tenement fire, you may have heard about this when you are talking to some of the old breed. It was my first year working vice with Barney Griel as equals. We had the rumors of a tip off to a growing drug ring in the Hylian district of the city. You must remember that there was a singular vice department for the city, and our reign was only limited by city limits."

"We came across the tenement where one of our informants, who was killed by being suffocated in plastic cling wrap three weeks later, said that there was a critical link in the drug ring in that tenement. We followed it up, but the damn thing was already aflame. Apparently, a hired clean up crew flooded the thing with a few dozen gallons of gasoline and lit a match."

Alexander took a long, angry drag of the cigarette. "It still bugs me on if they wanted to kill her, the link, why wouldn't they just have shot her? There are plenty of eaiser ways to kill a problem then setting fire to an entire building with others inside." He flicked the smoldering but out the open window. "But I digress, against Griel's suggestion of not risking my life for something potentially unstable as that structure was, I charged in. Thankfully it was mostly empty, and I moved the families out of the building. But there were some who were not as fortunate." He shuttered and wrinkled his nose. "You can get over the bodies being seen easily, but the smell never leaves. The building was giving in all around me and I saw the room where the link was. She was, thankfully, just beaten senseless and was lying on the ground away from the smoke."

He shook his head and drank the last of his monkey piss coffee. "Thankfully we both got out with only first degree burns and a blister here and there. She was... damaged up here." He pointed to the head and shook his own. "She was placed into the system, as she was still only fifteen at the time. She still does well and, thankfully, doesn't remember what happened."

"How does this connect to the case here sir?" Ike asked as Alexander came back into focus, and those eyes burned with a radiating zeal.

"Because she gave the documents she had on hand to a good friend of hers, as she didn't know who else to trust. We managed to find these documents in Lyndis' costume wardrobe at the club she usually performs at. There was a note that matches the handwriting of the link, so there is connection. Also, Warrio was killed off in a manner similar to some of the other vics of the crime ring. Also, there was a bit of a rumor going on around the time of the ring having connections to higher powers that may have well be God himself. " Alexander explained as he leaned over his desk and sighed heavily.

"Alright, now you understand why I am pushing this forward so much. There must be another dozen cases which could be perused and easily caught, but they're individuals not this organized gang of brigands. Sex trade, murder for hire, and enough drugs to keep the Colombians in the liquor for the next millennium. These bastards know no bounds and will stop at nothing to eliminate anyone who gets in their way." Alexander paused and looked at the other three, who appeared to have a mixture of confusion and realization playing across their faces at the same time.

"I need three detectives I can trust for this. Now, if you go in flashing badges, I will be out three very competent detectives. I need each one of you to get close to these individuals I have given to you. It won't be easy work, but this is ultimately rewarding."

"Sir, we are homicide investigators, not undercover material. Hells, we will stick out like a sore thumb." Ike stated out loud.

"Exactly. You are not the trained professionals to get to the heart of the case. That is what they will expect. They will expect someone to be knowledgeable of their entire business, play their cards just right, and then get executed in a gangland manner that makes the helicopter scene from Scarface look like dying in your sleep." Alexander stated as he flipped through some of the other files on his desk. "You three just need to act as yourselves. Young, eager, and confident investors who want a side thrill of being in a crime syndicate."

Marth spoke this time. "I hate to burst your bubble sir, but there are a few plot holes in your story. One, we are not rich enough to be considered investors. Two, look at us." He did a little encompassing hand gesture as he shook his head. "We would easily be recognized by anyone who hired those gunmen to come after us. Also, did I mention we don't have that kind of money!?"

Alexander nodded. " Simple really. Marth, put something like a tiara in the back of your hair. Link, wear a cap of some sort so you look like a refine hipster. Ike, fins some silken headband and tie your hair back. That should discourage them."

Ike laughed as if he heard something insane. "We aren't in some comic book or video game. Just a set of glasses won't distract them that easily."

"Actually it would. I found the hit list images that the dead gunman had on his person. They are distant shots and not keen on the exact details of you." Alexander said. "Look, I trust you guys with this and none others. You have the devotion, skill, and dedication to your cases that the fit is almost perfect. Or you can let this pass by. As far as the money situation goes, the precinct has a couple hundred thousand set aside for these types of activities. So setting up your accounts to look the part as you will wouldn't be too hard."

"And by pass by you mean we clean out our desks and saying get the hell out of here." Link stated flatly. With a nod from Alex, he grunted. "But I have a little brother at home. I can't just pack up and leave without him!"

Alex nodded and tapped his fingers together, thinking. 'Well, you won't be needing to live anywhere different, but you wouldn't be able to come home every night. And as far as keeping Toony out of trouble while you are away for extended periods of time... how was your date tonight?"

Taken back by the abruptness of the question, Link stutters for a moment. "It... it- it went rather well. We actually fought over the check and she even gave me a kiss goodbye."

"Oh, Link has a girlfriend?" Marth's metro-sexuality came out from him like a werewolf. "That shirt is repulsive unless you went to some local pub. And green on black... and a part polyester tie? Girl, we need to get you some Italian clothes."

"Fashion aside." Alexander interrupted again. "Your new friend would be a great asset in getting us closer to the case at hand. Also, given her prominence, I am sure that she knows a good sitter if need be."

"Aw, who is he- I mean she?" Ike asked in a half joshing tone.

Link turned at least three different shades of crimson as he whispered her name. "Elincia Crimea."

Marth looked as if someone stabbed him in the testicles with a knife. "Elinca... THE Elincia Crimea? The richest heiress in the city, second only to the Harkinians? How the name of all that is holy did you trick her into taking you out on a date?"

"Well, we met at a club with some of her other friends." He was a bit discusted when he said that but it passed in a moment. "We hit it off and I offered her out to dinner. Over dinner..." He formed a bit of a smile on his lips. "She was aliment of having her friends me my... close friends in our independent consultant business. Both of them are aparenlty also to some distinctive families so maybe we can use those connections to get closer to these three."

Marth nodded. "Though how will we make ourselves known to them when we reach them? It's not like we can make stuff up and they would believe us."

"Already working on that. Our street workers are cooking up stories and scenes about you guys. I'll send you a list of your new criminal achievements in the morning. So what do you say?" He rose with a humidifier box in his hands. "Have I placed my trust in the right place? Will you accept?"

"Will you give us a moment, sir? Alone?" Ike asked and Alexander nodded as he stepped out of his office as the three rose from the seats and walked around the room, swearing a whole storm of words that would make a sailor blush. "Well, let's be reasonable. This could be the biggest case of our career and Alexander wouldn't just give this case willy-nilly."

"Yes, yes, but think of it. We will be left alone in the sea of sharks. They smell blood and we would be dead in a matter of minutes." Marth argued.

Link shook his head. "Look, when we took on this job, we said we would enforce the law if at the cost of our own lives. This is just another way of enforcing it without becoming vigilantes. Plus, this means no more paper work for a while." The others chuckled at the statement and Link continued. "With Marth's magical metrosexual abilities can help us smooth things out in the high class world. Also, when it comes to the crime, we are able bodied men. We can survive what they throw at us."

"But there is another problem: morals!' Marth said a bit more loudly. "The things we will do; sex trafficking, murder, arm sales, and the like. Can we put our moral code aside for that long?"

Ike shook his head. "We will have to. I for one will accept this offer."

Marth nodded. "Aye."

Link sighed. "I may regret it, but I'll go along." He made a curt hand gesture and Alexander came back in. "Alright, captain. We will go along with your little plan. I assume you have handled it all in making us look like these investors?"

Alexander clasped his hands and nodded. He opened his box and produced four large cigars. "Excellent. We will handle the other details in the morning. In the meantime," he said as he snipped off the heads to the cigars and offered them to the investigators, who graciously accepted, "you will need to get some rest. You will need it."

Mart took the cigar and examined the label on it. "Cuban?"

Alexander nodded as he whipped out the butane lighter and lit the cigars properly. "Aye. Get use to it lads. You will get plenty of these where you are going. And you may want them get rid of the foul taste of the debauchery that the upper echelons are sure to be infested with."

Link shook his head and knew that he would have to call Elinca after this, provided she was still awake to see if she could convince her friends to go along with this play date idea of hers. To be honest, he was wondering on how Ms. Brunette would take to seeing him again. He looked over to Ike and then pictured her next to him. Well, if it didn't work out, there would be plenty of good laughs in it. Marth would hit it off with the – Peach, Cherry, Pomegranate? What was her name again? It was some kind of fruit.

But for now, he smoked his cigar and prepared himself for the task ahead of him.


End file.
